Police scandal in Uster: Dismissed commander accused of writing anonymous defamatory letters
According to an administrative investigation, the former commander of Uster city police is said to have sent anonymous defamatory letters with an "overwhelming body of evidence". He denies the allegations.
Police scandal in Uster: Dismissed commander accused of writing anonymous defamatory letters
Uster – the third-largest city in Zurich canton with around 37,000 residents – is in the midst of a political scandal. As Blick investigations show, it involves not only financial irregularities at the city police force, but also anonymous defamatory letters that apparently originated from within the police ranks themselves.
Falsified billing and an expensive BMW
The starting point of the scandal: at Uster city police, invoices were systematically split to circumvent internal control thresholds. For example, a BMW X2 with 300 horsepower – purchase price around 100,000 francs – was billed in four instalments. The reason: from an amount of 50,000 francs onwards, a formal resolution from the city council would have been required.
The city government learned of this at the end of March but withheld the information for months. It was not until July, when parliament debated the annual accounts, that the irregularities – and even then only in passing – came to light. Subsequently, it emerged that security director Beatrice Caviezel (55, GLP) had herself approved part of the split invoices. Furthermore, the practice is said to have existed for years.
Letters to private addresses – including to the former army commander
In parallel, several citizens and politicians who had criticised the city police on social media or in letters to the editor received anonymous defamatory letters at their private addresses over the past years. Among the recipients in spring 2025 was former army commander Thomas Süssli (59). The letter to Süssli disparaged a police officer who had transferred to the army: "He should never be allowed to handle weapons. He is not clean," it stated about the new employee.
Particularly striking: parts of the anonymous mail were packaged in official envelopes from the city of Uster and sent using a municipal franking machine – a clue that points to the perpetrator being in the immediate vicinity of the city police.
FDP city councillor Simon Vlk (42) also received such a letter. "You typically only know about such incidents from poorly made Hollywood films," he told Blick. Should the letters actually originate from police circles, it would be "serious stuff – and possibly also legally relevant".
"Overwhelming body of evidence" against the commander
The city commissioned a law firm to conduct an administrative investigation. In this process, the then-commander of city police, Andreas Baumgartner (48), as well as several management staff members were interviewed. Baumgartner appeared with a lawyer, denied any authorship – and refused to provide a handwriting sample.
The conclusion of the investigating firm is nonetheless clear: the author of the anonymous letters was "very likely" Baumgartner. There is an "overwhelming body of evidence". Furthermore, Baumgartner admitted to further misconduct during the investigation: he had suits made at city expense and used a derogatory nickname for a department head.
In mid-June, Uster announced Baumgartner's departure effective at the end of October; he has been suspended since then. The city cited "loss of confidence on both sides" as the reason, without providing further details. Baumgartner's lawyers stated to SonntagsBlick that their client firmly continues to deny the allegations: "There are no concrete proofs, nor does the chain of circumstantial evidence presented in the investigation report hold up."
"Baumgartner appears to me to be a scapegoat"
That a police commander must resign when his superiors believe him to be the author of defamatory letters is hardly surprising. However, political observers suspect the dismissal is also convenient for the city council because it allows them to attribute the financial irregularities solely to Baumgartner.
Paul Stopper (79), who represents the small party Citizen-oriented Politics Uster in city parliament, puts it directly: "Baumgartner appears to me to be a scapegoat." The splitting of invoices to circumvent controls also takes place in other municipal departments – "sometimes with the knowledge or tolerance of political superiors, who do not always want to justify every expenditure before the full city council – or even before the voters."
FDP city councillor Vlk emphasises the democratic damage: "By deliberately circumventing the democratic approval process, expenditures were imposed on the city of Uster that were neither politically nor financially legitimate." The resulting costs are borne entirely by taxpayers.
City president changes answer upon proofreading
The city government's communication behaviour is also facing criticism. City president Barbara Thalmann (60, SP) declared communications to be her personal responsibility – and stumbled in the process. In an interview with the "Anzeiger von Uster", when asked whether the city government already knew of the police scandal before the renewal elections on 12 April, she initially answered no – and changed her answer to yes upon proofreading.
This raises suspicion that the city council withheld the information until after the elections to avoid jeopardising their own election chances. Those in the circle of those involved reject this accusation as unfair: the matter first had to be investigated more thoroughly. Thalmann herself has not commented on the matter since – and has let it be known that she will make no further statements before the parliamentary session on 31 August.
Source: Blick