Although they are employed by the state, Bernese police officers will soon be able to sit in the cantonal parliament, as long as they do not hold a senior executive position. A motion, launched by MP Patrick Freudiger (UDC), was accepted by 129 votes to 17 votes, and 6 abstentions, reports the “Berner Zeitung”.
The law on the Grand Council, which stipulates that certain cantonal functions are incompatible with a deputy mandate, will therefore have to be adapted accordingly. However, some have expressed concerns about respecting the separation of powers.
In French-speaking Switzerland, in Geneva, police officers can be elected to the cantonal parliament since the end of the 1990s. Currently, all those who sit there are part of the Geneva Citizens Movement (MCG). As in the Jura, Friborg agents can be deputies to the Grand Council, since 2008, except the six members of the general staff, i.e. the police commander, the division heads and the corps commanders.
In Neuchâtel, on the other hand, the Constitution prohibits any cantonal employee from sitting on the Grand Council, with the exception of members of the teaching staff. This was decided in 2000, out of fear that people would exercise supervisory power over their professional superiors. In Valais, a police officer is also not authorized to exercise public functions at the cantonal or federal level, but he can at the municipal level. Agents are in fact assimilated to people hired by the cantonal administration.
Finally, in the canton of Vaud, it is case by case. According to the personnel law, the Council of State determines under what conditions employees can accept public office, including a mandate as deputy to the Grand Council. The hiring authority then decides. But no police officer is currently there.
