AfD on public safety

The AfD wants to make police work more attractive and raise pay at least to the level of the Federal Police. After 25 years of shift work, officers should be able to retire at 60 without pension cuts.

The AfD wants to pay police officers in Brandenburg better. They should earn as much as the Federal Police. After 25 years of shift work, they should be able to retire at 60.

The platform sees the comparatively low pay in the state as a drawback in recruiting young people and career changers. The raise is meant to get young people from Brandenburg to serve in their own state. Early retirement without deductions applies to officers with 25 years of rotating or shift duty.

The AfD wants to raise the number of police positions statewide to 9,500 and re-establish the police in rural areas. Police equipment and the courts, especially criminal justice, are also to be strengthened.

The AfD wants more police officers in Brandenburg. There should be 9,500 positions. Police should be present in rural areas again. The courts should also be strengthened.

In patrol duty there should be one officer per 4,000 residents instead of, according to the platform, one per 7,500 today. The AfD opposes the withdrawal from rural areas and wants shorter times between emergency call and arrival. District towns such as Beeskow are to get a police station again. Police staffing and equipment are to be improved.

The AfD wants more video surveillance at hotspots and automated license plate and facial recognition at border crossings. This is meant to improve threat prevention, manhunts and criminal prosecution.

The AfD wants more cameras in certain places. At the border, computers should recognize license plates and faces. This should help the police find wanted people.

Video surveillance is to be expanded at hotspots while respecting the principle of proportionality. At border crossings, the program calls for regular, fully automated capture of license plates and faces. For investigations on the internet, and especially on the darknet, police officers are to get the best available hardware and software.

The AfD wants to allow municipal police forces in order to offset the shortage of police officers in the short to medium term. A pilot project is to start in Frankfurt (Oder).

The AfD wants a police force for cities and counties. Staff from the public order office should get extra training for this. It should start in Frankfurt (Oder). These city police officers should not carry guns.

The state is to create the legal basis so that field staff of public order offices can be trained as city or county police officers. They would take on threat prevention tasks and, as a backup, certain other police duties. Their equipment is not to include firearms.

The AfD wants to eliminate the post of Polizeibeauftragter (police commissioner) in Brandenburg. In its view, the office entrenches permanent mistrust of police officers and is disproportionate.

Brandenburg has a police commissioner. People can complain to this office about police officers. The AfD wants to get rid of it. It says the office shows mistrust of the police.

The program calls the post superfluous. It criticizes that the commissioner looks into complaints about officers and suspected problems instead of looking after the concerns of police staff. The office was created with the votes of the governing coalition.

The AfD wants the nationality and migration background of suspects to be made public. It argues that citizens have a right to know which groups are over- or underrepresented in crime statistics.

The AfD wants authorities to always say which country a suspect comes from. They should also say if the suspect has an immigrant background. The AfD says citizens have a right to know this.

The program calls for what it describes as an unvarnished picture of crime in Brandenburg. The current restraint in disclosing origin is to end. It also says accurate statistics are essential for investigative and preventive police work.

The AfD wants to use the Bundesrat to push for harsher penalties, faster proceedings and easier pretrial detention. Prisoners would have to earn relaxations of their custody, and victims would get more rights.

The AfD wants tougher punishments. People who attack police or rescue workers should be punished more harshly. Criminal trials should be faster. Prisoners should only get privileges if they cooperate. Victims should get a lawyer.

The minimum sentence for attacks on officials and rescue workers is to rise. Intoxication from alcohol, cannabis or other drugs, as well as non-European cultural or religious backgrounds, should no longer readily lead to lighter sentences. Proceedings are to be streamlined, for example through wider use of summary penalty orders or dropping the final appeal stage in suitable cases. Assets gained from crime are to be confiscated consistently, even when evidence emerges later. Pretrial detention is to be easier to order for violent offenses, and prosecutors would normally have to approve prison privileges. Victims would be entitled to a lawyer and more participation in proceedings.

The AfD wants to expand the joint German-Polish police and customs center to include fire services and civil protection. The state is also to inform the public about personal emergency preparedness.

Germany and Poland already work together on police and customs. The AfD wants fire services and civil protection to join in. That way both countries learn about environmental damage sooner. People should also learn how to prepare for emergencies.

The platform points to the environmental disaster on the Oder River and its mass fish die-off. Fire service and civil protection staff from both countries would exchange information daily to give early warning of cross-border pollution. The aim is joint strategies and joint operations to limit damage. The AfD also wants to work with fire and rescue services to promote personal preparedness, such as keeping supplies, statewide, as the Federal Office of Civil Protection does at the national level.

The AfD wants to pay firefighters a uniform statewide expense allowance and provide standardized equipment and regular training. Youth fire brigades are to receive more funding and publicity to attract new recruits.

The AfD wants to make serving in the fire department more attractive. Firefighters should get the same allowance across the state. They should get good gear and training. Youth fire brigades should get more support too.

To do this, Brandenburg's disaster control act and its municipal charges act would be amended so the allowance is clearly defined. The platform counts lightweight protective clothing and versatile light fire engines as proper equipment. In the AfD's view, protecting people, forests, and heathland must not fall victim to budget cuts.