Conflicts in the outdoor swimming pool: ‘Every swimming pool must call the police twice a season’

Threats, sexual harassment, mass brawls and knife attacks – this is already a reality in certain outdoor swimming pools in Germany. The problem with our northern neighbor is so great that even Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a police presence in the outdoor pools.

In Switzerland, too, you have read headlines about the willingness to use violence in bathing establishments. Last year there was a mass brawl involving 30 people in a swimming pool in the canton of Thurgau.

Or on the last voting Sunday, June 18, there was an argument with several people in the middle of the bathers at the Bernese outdoor swimming pool Marzili.

At Watson’s request to the city of Bern, the city wrote that it was a “conflict between people swimming in and boating on the Aare”. The city police took up the matter. “Basically, we do not consider the willingness to use violence in the outdoor pools to be higher than in other public places,” the municipality writes. But what about the rest of Switzerland?

Watson asked the cantonal police of seven cantons about the situation in their bathing facilities. There are noticeable differences. In the canton of Schwyz, for example, the police have no figures on assault and physical injury in bathing establishments. “Because it is extremely rare that an assault or even a report is made,” said the cantonal police when asked. This is treated in the same way in the cantons of Lucerne and Bern.

The situation is different in the canton of Vaud, with outdoor swimming pools on Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchâtel. Since 2019, the number of incidents in bathing establishments has increased slightly. In 2019, three bodily injuries and two assaults were registered. Last year there were three attacks and seven attacks. “Since these are cases reported to the police, it is likely that there will be a few more cases,” the Vaud cantonal police write on request.

In Vaud there is even a distinction according to type of bathing facility. Most attacks took place in outdoor pools, then in thermal baths and indoor pools.

There are also many outdoor swimming pools in the canton of St.Gallen with Lake Zurich, Lake Walen and Lake Constance. She did not record how often the police had to move to bathing establishments. However, St.Gallen also records reported cases of physical injury and assault in bathing establishments.

In 2019, there was one bodily injury and three assaults in the canton’s swimming pools. Then followed two quieter years, until 2022, when there were two cases of bodily harm and one assault. For the year 2023, three cases of assault have already been registered.

Abuse and physical injury in swimming pools in the canton of Aargau are also a minor problem. The cantonal police only give figures for both together. There were three reports in 2019, two in 2020, only one in 2021 and again two in 2022.

“In contrast, figures about interventions cannot be evaluated. Police operations in bathing establishments due to quarrels and the like are the exception,” writes the Aargau cantonal police when asked.

Of the respondents, the canton of Zurich registered the most cases and notifications. In 2019, there were a total of eight assaults and physical injuries in bathing establishments. In 2020 there were even 14 cases, eleven of which were assaults.

Three reports were made in 2021 and another 14 in 2022. However, none of the incidents involved serious bodily injury.

It is interesting how many of these took place in the largest city in the canton, in Zurich itself. From 2019 to July 20, 2023, 13 bodily injuries and 11 assaults were recorded in the city’s bathing establishments.

Felix Mössinger is chairman of the swimming pool association OASE, which unites 29 outdoor swimming pools in the regions of Oberaargau, Seeland and Emmental. Mössinger notes “quite rarely” that there are violent altercations involving bodily harm and assault, as he tells Watson. But: “I’ve heard a few cross-border altercations where you try to resolve the situation first. In the event of a threat – also towards the staff – you must call the police.” This is the best way to keep and protect staff out of the line of fire.

“I estimate that every Swiss swimming pool has to call the police once or twice a season – with the possible exception of the very small outdoor pools,” says Mössinger. Moreover, urban swimming pools are still different from rural ones. “In general, however, there is peace in the bathing facilities,” Mössinger is convinced.

The Swiss Badmeister-Verband (SBV) has a clear position on how to deal with unpleasant guests. SBV Vice President Sibylle Rykart tells Watson: “Each bath has bathing rules that show how guests should behave. If you do not comply with the rules, the lifeguard must draw your attention to it, which is usually sufficient.” The SBV advises every lifeguard to act preventively.

She cannot quantify how often the police actually go to outdoor swimming pools across Switzerland. But Rykart says: “With swimming pools being very large and popular, it would make sense for the police to patrol regularly. That has a deterrent effect on violence and is the best preventative work.”