In the context of policing, various forms of institutional misconduct, which can also be called institutional racism, are becoming increasingly visible.

Identity checks regardless of any suspicion on the basis of §§ 22 (1a) and 23 of the Federal Police Act (Bundespolizeigesetz) should prevent illegal entry. The legal basis itself is initially formulated in a neutral way. However, there is a suspicion that the police are actively selecting people by traits such as skin colour or ethnic affiliation to carry out identity checks for suspected illegal entry. Even German as a mother tongue or a German passport of a PoC does not seem to prevent officials from carrying out an identity check, allegedly without any suspicion, in which the passport is checked, or a data query is carried out. Institutional mechanisms and practices within the Federal Police seem to lead to unequal treatment in these cases. This could be avoided through other mechanisms and practices. Hence, this practice could be referred to as institutional discrimination.

Statistical surveys on the control practice by the Federal Police have not been carried out so far. The extent of possible unequal treatment is therefore not quantifiable. Since 2012, affected persons increasingly filed lawsuits against the Federal Police for such control practices. The Büro zur Umsetzung der von Gleichbehandlung e.V. (BUG) supports plaintiffs in doing so and has compiled a dossier on the phenomenon of racial profiling, which can be accessed here.

Members of the NSU have murdered nine people living in Germany with a migratory background. During the investigation of the murders by various federal and state police authorities, the investigators focused on the family environment to find the perpetrators and the victims were suspected of having committed criminal offences. Indications to the involvement of the right-wing extremist scene were ignored and not pursued. Only by accident the weapon with which the murders were committed could be found. Within the framework of a Bundestag committee, the facts were analysed, and massive misconduct was detected at all levels of the police authorities. The one-sided police investigation in this case constitutes a passive form of institutional discrimination and is also classified that way in the report of the NSU Inquiry Committee of the German parliament. During the investigations, the perpetrators were only looked for in the environment of criminal foreigners. In the eyes of the police, it was clear from the outset "that the perpetrator was located far beyond the system of local norms and values in terms of his behavioural system" and that they could therefore exclude Germans as perpetrators.