The authorities of the province in the west of Germany have suspended 29 police officers suspected of transmitting extreme right-wing propaganda on the "WhatsApp" application, which at least two have been doing for years.
Investigators searched 34 locations, including police stations and apartments in the Ruhr region, said Herbert Reuhl, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.
The material shared contained "the dirtiest and most disgusting neo-Nazi, racist and anti-refugee propaganda," he said, adding that he was left "speechless" when he saw it.
Among the offending content were photos of Adolf Hitler, swastikas, a fictional depiction of refugees in concentration camp gas chambers and one mocking the shooting of dark-skinned people, Royle added.
Such material was distributed to at least five groups of pallication users who were all or mostly police officers, he said. It looks like one of those groups was created back in 2012, and the one with the most offensive images is from 2015. The most recent offensive message is from August 27th.
Most of the policemen involved worked in the same police station in Milheim.
Royle said all 29 were suspended from work today and disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against them.
"We have to ask ourselves uncomfortable questions: Who knew about this? Why was it tolerated for years? Who tolerated it?" Royle said.
The case once again draws attention to the neo-Nazi ideology in the German police force, which senior officials have previously downplayed in recent years, although they have warned that the danger of extreme right-wing violence is growing in society.
In July, Germany's Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer rejected calls for such a police investigation, claiming there were no "systemic problems".
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance from Strasbourg had previously proposed to all members to conduct a study on the attitude of police officers towards races, but Seehofer, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), did not allow it.
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