BSW on public safety

The BSW wants a more visible police presence, more positions especially for patrol and investigative units, and better equipment. Attacks on police and emergency workers should be punished consistently, while the state domestic intelligence agency should face more democratic oversight.

There should be more police on the streets. The police should get more staff and better gear. People who attack police or rescue workers should be punished. The Verfassungsschutz should be watched more closely. It is the state's domestic intelligence agency.

Police should work close to the community, focus on prevention and be quickly available in emergencies. Training should put more weight on de-escalation and psychological skills. Administrative structures are to be slimmed down and digitized. Anyone who obstructs or attacks police or emergency workers should be punished consistently, with investigators and courts equipped to enforce existing laws. At the same time, the program stresses proportionality and the presumption of innocence, rejects an overreaching state and calls for more democratic oversight of the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The BSW wants the state to give more support to fire departments, the DLRG lifesaving society, disaster relief and emergency medical services, arguing that municipalities often cannot handle the costs. Volunteer fire departments in rural areas should get help from paid professional staff.

Fire and rescue services should get more help from the state. Towns often cannot pay the costs alone. Volunteer fire departments in the countryside should get paid helpers. The state fire academy should offer more training spots.

The program calls for good equipment, training and recognition for emergency personnel. Training capacity at the Thuringian state fire and disaster relief academy is to be expanded. First aid, fire safety and rescue skills should be promoted widely among the public. The BSW condemns obstruction of rescue workers, such as road blockades, and rejects using disaster relief as advertising for "war readiness."

The BSW believes investigators and prosecutors are not adequately prepared for challenges posed by AI and cybercrime. It therefore wants to create a specialized prosecution office and draw up rules for dealing with artificial intelligence.

There is more and more crime on the internet. The BSW wants a special prosecutors' office for it. It should deal only with these crimes. There should also be rules for artificial intelligence.

According to the program, investigative and prosecution authorities are not sufficiently prepared for cybercrime and AI. A specialized prosecution office is to handle these cases. The BSW also calls for rules on dealing with artificial intelligence.

The BSW wants early crime prevention that teaches young people to take responsibility for their actions. More school social workers and street workers are to be deployed, and justice topics are to get more attention in class.

Children and teens should learn early to take responsibility. This should lead to less crime. There should be more social workers at schools. Students should visit courts.

The program considers prevention to be of outstanding importance. More school social workers and street workers are to be hired. Justice and the prison system are to receive more weight in school curricula. Attending court hearings and talking with prison staff and lawyers is to become mandatory for students.