BSW on public safety

The BSW wants more officers on the street, all existing police stations kept open, and an end to job cuts. At the same time it rejects an overreaching state and prefers personnel to video surveillance.

The BSW wants more police officers on the street. No police station should close. The party thinks officers are better than cameras. People should be able to move freely without being watched.

Police should work close to the community and preventively and be quickly available across the state, especially in precinct, patrol, and investigative work. The platform points to the need for security in the metropolitan region and near the border. Proportionality and the presumption of innocence should always apply. The BSW also calls for high-quality training and more recognition for officers.

The BSW wants to expand the police academy in Oranienburg so the state gets enough qualified recruits. Better promotion prospects, regular promotions and higher allowances are meant to make the job more attractive.

The BSW wants to train more police officers. The police academy in Oranienburg should grow. Officers should move up more easily. They should also get more pay for night shifts.

The police academy in Oranienburg is to grow until it covers the state's need for recruits. The platform calls for better promotion prospects and regular promotions. The party considers allowances, for example for night shifts, too low. Comprehensive health prevention is meant to keep officers fit for duty. The stated goal is a well-equipped police force close to citizens that keeps public places safe in all neighborhoods and in the border regions.

The BSW wants to restrict the powers of the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) in order, in its view, to protect citizens from spying and manipulation. The constitutional loyalty check is to be abolished and parliamentary oversight strengthened.

The BSW wants to give the Verfassungsschutz fewer powers. The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence service. It should only watch extremists. The BSW wants to end the loyalty check. The state parliament should control the service more closely.

Only anti-constitutional activities of political or religious extremism are to be monitored, but these consistently. The party rejects extending monitoring to opinions the platform calls non-conforming. The Parliamentary Control Commission is to get more ways to review all activities of the service. The constitutional loyalty check, a query to the intelligence service before someone is hired into public service, is to be dropped.

The BSW wants the state to give municipalities more and faster support for equipping and running fire services and disaster control. Volunteer responders are to get more benefits and protection from disadvantages at work.

The BSW wants more state money for fire services. Towns should use it to buy vehicles and equipment. The money should arrive faster. Volunteers should get more benefits. They should not face problems at work.

The state is to co-fund purchases such as vehicles, firefighting equipment and water supply networks more strongly and process funding applications quickly; the platform calls waiting times of more than two years unacceptable. Brandenburg's wildfire risk should be reflected in how firefighting is organized and funded. The state school for fire and disaster protection is to get more capacity and teachers. The volunteer card is to become more attractive. Company fire brigades should be able to help with local fire protection, which the platform says currently fails due to legal rules. The party rejects using disaster control to promote a larger army.

The BSW calls for tougher penalties for violent attacks on emergency and rescue workers and for obstructing them. The platform also counts road blockades, for example by climate activists, among such obstruction.

Some people attack rescue workers. Others get in the way of their work. The BSW wants tougher penalties for this. This should also apply to road blockades.

The party opposes any behavior that hinders rescue workers in their work. It explicitly names road blockades, for example by activists the platform calls “Klimakleber” (climate gluers). Both such obstruction and violence against responders are to be punished more severely.

The BSW wants more staff and resources for the courts so that sentences are enforced faster and no cases fail because deadlines expire. At the same time, new recruits are to be won for the justice system and digitalization advanced with a sense of proportion.

The BSW wants more staff for the courts. Punishment should come soon after the crime. Cases should not fail because of deadlines. The state should win young people for the justice system. Private companies should not run prisons.

According to the platform, one in four judges or prosecutors will retire within nine years. The state is therefore to recruit at schools and universities, secure law study places at all locations and make posts far from Potsdam more attractive. For digitalization the party demands training, more IT specialists, uniform nationwide standards and a joint federal-state justice portal; video hearings are to remain the exception. The BSW rejects private operators and security firms in courts and prisons. To prevent crime, there are to be more school social workers and street workers, and justice topics are to get more room in lessons.