CDU on public safety

The CDU wants to align police pay and allowances with other states, speed up promotions, and hire 150 trainees every year. The job is to become more attractive, among other things through less overtime and modern equipment.

The CDU wants to pay police officers better. Young officers should move up faster. Each year, 150 new officers should start. The police should get good equipment. There should be less overtime.

Pay, risk allowances and pensions are to develop in step with other states. Young inspectors are to be promoted about two years earlier on average, with larger promotion budgets to fund this. Experienced officers may work beyond the regular retirement age if they wish. The minimum height as a fixed hiring requirement is to be dropped, and new career tracks such as cybercrime specialists are planned. The CDU wants to consistently punish violence against emergency personnel. Investment in equipment and buildings such as the large police station in Saarbrücken is to continue.

The CDU wants to hire about 170 more non-civil-servant employees to relieve police officers of administrative work. The police and municipal public order services are to get broader powers and better training.

Police officers do a lot of office work. The CDU wants to hire about 170 other workers for that. The public order services should get more staff. They should also be allowed to do more. Then officers have more time for their main tasks.

The platform considers investigative assistants a proven model and wants more of them; making them civil servants is being examined. The police public order service is to grow in staff. Salaried experts are to work more often in IT, cybercrime and personnel administration. The aim is for fully trained officers to concentrate on their core duties.

The CDU wants to organize the police so that up to 1,000 officers can be deployed across the state. Security partnerships with municipalities are to be expanded. A new program is meant to push burglary down further.

The CDU wants more police officers on the streets and in towns. Up to 1,000 officers should work close to the people. The state and towns should work together on safety. A new program should prevent burglaries.

The platform justifies local presence with people's sense of safety. It is to be achieved through organizational changes in the police. Against burglary, the CDU wants to go beyond current investigation and prevention work. The new program is to improve prevention and raise the clearance rate, with the goal of eliminating burglary in the long run.

The CDU considers video surveillance of public places in Saarland, which the platform calls "video protection," a proven tool. Existing sites are to be reviewed regularly. At the same time, the party wants ongoing checks on whether more crime hotspots should be added.

Some places in Saarland have police video cameras. The CDU thinks this is good. It wants to check these places regularly. It also wants to see if cameras make sense in more places.

The platform justifies the cameras with rising property and violent crime, a visible drug scene, and the public's need for safety. It says surveillance works where such crimes cluster in a small area. It is part of the state's overall security strategy. The existing sites are to be evaluated regularly.

The CDU wants to tackle digital and organized crime and online hate with more staff, technology and new surveillance powers. It calls for a real-name requirement on social networks and unencrypted data for investigators. The platform ranks security above data protection.

Many crimes happen online today. The CDU wants people to use their real names on social networks. The networks should give police data without encryption. The CDU says: Safety matters more than data privacy.

The platform mentions crimes against older people such as the grandchild scam, organized crime, and offenses using encrypted communication. Financial and money-laundering investigations are to be strengthened considerably nationwide in order to seize criminal assets. The cyber defense training center is to get the technical specialists it needs. Legal bases are to be created quickly for surveillance tools that are technically feasible and defensible under data protection law. Prevention and cooperation with federal, state and cross-border regional authorities are also planned.

The CDU wants entries in the certificate of good conduct for serious sexual offenses against children to no longer be deleted automatically. Internet providers are to store traffic data to the full extent the law allows. The specialized police unit is to get more staff and technology.

The CDU wants to protect children better from sexual violence. Records of such serious crimes should stay in the conduct certificate forever. Internet companies should store connection data as long as the law allows. The police should get more staff and technology for this.

The platform points to rising case numbers in child and youth pornography and the heavy effort needed to identify offender networks. Providers that do not use the full storage framework under Section 113b of the Telecommunications Act are to face the maximum possible sanctions from the Federal Network Agency. Alongside prevention work, the specialized unit is to be reinforced with staff and technology. Its employees are to receive a hardship allowance because of the psychological strain.

The CDU wants to continue public education on bias-motivated crime and examine whether such offenses, especially against LGBTI people, should be recorded more precisely in crime statistics. Police and justice staff are to receive further training.

Some people are attacked out of hate, for example gay, lesbian or trans people. The CDU wants to count such crimes more exactly. It is looking into this. Police and courts should learn more about it.

Public education is meant to raise awareness in society. The topic is to be anchored more firmly in the initial and ongoing training of police and justice employees. The Saarland state police's officers for LGBTI concerns are to be strengthened in their work.

The CDU wants to give the state more powers to intervene in the fight against crime. It explicitly includes legally compliant retention of telecommunications traffic data, arguing that offenders in the digital sphere cannot otherwise be identified.

The CDU wants the state to be allowed to store connection data. This is data about who contacted whom online and when. It should help police find offenders on the internet. The storage must follow the law.

The platform stresses that fundamental rights protect individuals from state interference. But it says the state needs effective tools against people who abuse these freedoms to commit crimes. The CDU wants a legal policy that gives authorities the powers to keep pace with how crime evolves. It names traffic data retention as an essential part of this, since it sees no other way to catch offenders online.

The CDU wants to keep adding staff to Saarland's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) and fund modern equipment for it. It sees the agency, alongside the police, as a guarantor of security in the state.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz in Saarland. This is an agency that watches enemies of democracy. It should get more staff. It should also get better equipment.

According to the platform, the domestic intelligence service provides security together with the police. The CDU pledges to continue increasing the agency's staff. It also wants to provide funds for up-to-date, targeted equipment.

The CDU wants to turn the special cybercrime department at the Saarbrücken public prosecutor's office into an interdisciplinary investigative unit. Alongside lawyers, it is to employ business and IT specialists so that authorities can keep pace with online crime.

The CDU wants to pursue internet crime more effectively. The prosecutor's office already has a department for this. This department should grow. Experts for computers and business should also work there.

The platform points to the growing burden on law enforcement from ever new forms of cybercrime. Authorities should have the staff and technology to act quickly and competently. The existing special department is to grow in line with the expected caseload. The CDU argues that complex cases with technical and economic aspects can only be handled efficiently by specialists from several disciplines.

The CDU wants to consistently confiscate assets obtained through crime. To that end, an interdisciplinary special unit is to be set up at the public prosecutor's office to secure such assets early and later liquidate them.

The CDU says crime must not pay. The state should take illegal money away from offenders. A new unit at the prosecutor's office should do this. It should secure the money quickly.

As examples, the platform names proceeds from drug dealing and money obtained by fraud, including online. The unit is to act shortly after investigations begin. It is also to serve as the legally required central office for liquidating virtual currencies. The CDU expects the spending to pay for itself through the confiscated assets.

The CDU wants to promote alternatives to prison, especially for people jailed because they cannot pay a fine. This is meant to save costs and prison capacity and improve the chances of rehabilitation.

Some people cannot pay their fine. Then they often have to go to prison. The CDU wants to avoid this more often. These people should do community work instead. This saves money and helps them.

The platform justifies the approach with the cost of each day in prison and the fact that incarceration disrupts ties to family and work. A professional staffing and organizational structure is to be created within the justice system. It is to build on the program Schwitzen statt Sitzen ("sweat instead of sitting") and set up outreach social work together with independent providers. The CDU also wants to offer those affected a way out of criminal environments.

The CDU wants to establish Häuser des Jugendrechts (Houses of Juvenile Justice) across Saarland. There, prosecutors, police, youth welfare services and other agencies work together on cases of young offenders in order to respond early and in a way tailored to each case.

The CDU wants Houses of Juvenile Justice all over Saarland. Police, prosecutors and youth welfare offices work together there. They deal with young people who have committed crimes. The young people should get a quick penalty and also help.

According to the platform, consistent prosecution alone is often not enough for juveniles because juvenile criminal law aims at education. It calls for early, individually tailored sanctions and age-appropriate support. Pilot projects exist in the Saarlouis district and in Neunkirchen, with more being developed in Merzig and St. Wendel. The CDU wants to increase funding for the approach and extend it to the whole state.

The CDU wants to organize disaster and civil protection in Saarland under one roof and equip it better. It cites the 2021 floods as the reason. Volunteer responders are to receive more support and financial compensation.

The CDU wants to improve protection in disasters. Responsibilities should be brought together. There should be more money for equipment and staff. The state fire service school should be rebuilt. Volunteers should get money for their expenses.

Plans include more staff for the disaster protection competence center and minimum staffing in the responsible local authorities. The state fire service school is to be rebuilt and training reorganized. The state is to provide money for infrastructure and equipment and support decentralized disaster protection centers at the level of municipal associations. Volunteers are to receive expense allowances and equal status with one another; state funding for training by volunteer organizations is to resume. The CDU also plans better crisis management and regular drills involving the public.

The CDU wants to strengthen cooperation between security agencies and neighboring countries to fight crime that exploits open Schengen borders. It will examine setting up an international police post in the tri-border area.

Borders in Europe are open. Some criminals take advantage of that. So the CDU wants police to work more closely with neighboring countries. It is looking into a shared police station in the tri-border area. That is where Germany, France and Luxembourg meet.

The joint center for police and customs cooperation in Luxembourg is to be expanded and the Mondorf Agreement developed further. The CDU envisions the international police post under review as a model for Europe. A border alert plan and closer coordination with partners on both sides of the border are also planned. The CDU also wants to assess, together with the federal government, options for better interregional cooperation.