CDU on public safety

The CDU wants to hire 350 police trainees every year so that at least 300 new officers enter service annually. Police are to be present in rural areas too, and the job is to become more attractive through better pay and promotions.

The CDU wants to hire more police officers. Every year 350 young people should start training. There should be enough police in rural areas too. Police officers should get better pay.

The figure of 350 trainees is meant to offset dropouts during training. For recruitment, the CDU plans better application procedures, a new advertising strategy, pay that is competitive with other states, and expanding the training center in Meiningen into an education campus. More community contact officers and additional patrol cars are to be deployed in the districts; cooperation with municipal public order offices is to be closer. The program promises a yearly performance-based promotion quota and a revised hardship allowance. A statewide campaign called "Schutzschleife" (protection ribbon) is to raise public appreciation for emergency and security personnel.

The CDU wants to equip every police officer on duty with a body camera, citing rising violence against officers. Police are also to receive digital devices, be relieved of administrative work and non-police tasks, and spend more time on patrol.

The CDU wants to give every police officer on duty a body camera. This is a small camera worn on the body. It should protect officers from violence. All officers should also get smartphones or tablets. They should have less paperwork and be on the street more.

The CDU accuses the previous state government of delaying the purchase of the cameras. It points out that, on its initiative, the police law already permits video and audio recording and the pre-recording function. A digitalization drive is to give all officers smartphones or tablets. Tasks such as guarding buildings or escorting heavy-load transports are no longer to be handled by police officers. Less administrative work is meant to increase presence in the field, which the party says deters offenders.

The CDU wants police to make far greater use of video surveillance in public squares and wants to make weapon-free zones easier to set up. Municipal public order offices are to get more powers and equipment. According to the platform, the aim is more safety in public spaces and action against knife attacks.

The CDU wants more cameras in public squares. It wants to make it easier to create zones where weapons are banned. In these zones, police may check people without suspicion. City public order offices should also get more powers.

The state police law is to be amended so that police can use video surveillance much more widely. Towns and cities that choose to monitor public squares would receive state funding for it. Weapon-free zones are to be easier to establish, which allows checks without specific suspicion at certain locations. For municipal public order services, the CDU wants to create the legal basis for equipping them with pepper spray, body cams and dash cams.

The CDU wants to allow police to issue preventive no-contact and stay-away orders and to monitor them with electronic ankle tags. This is meant to better protect potential victims of domestic violence and stalking. It also wants to make it easier for crime victims to obtain compensation.

Police should be able to ban offenders from coming near a victim. An electronic ankle tag should monitor this. That is a device on the leg that reports the location. Victims of crime should get help and money more easily.

The preventive orders are to be written into the state police law. People considered dangerous and violent offenders could also be required to attend violence prevention counseling. The CDU wants to check compliance with the orders through electronic location monitoring. For crime victims, the application for compensation is to be simplified, and counseling centers and victim associations are to receive further specialist training. Victim protection is to get more attention in the training of police and justice staff.

The CDU wants to expand Thuringia's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) in staff and technology and give it new powers. It is to use informants again, carry out remote searches of computers and monitor organized crime. Extremism is to be fought in all its forms.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz. This is the state's domestic intelligence service. It should use informants from extremist groups again. It should also be allowed to secretly search computers. It should watch criminal gangs as well.

To counter terrorism, the service is to be allowed to carry out remote computer searches and to access traffic data of known extremists, people considered dangerous and terror suspects. It is to monitor organized crime again because, in the CDU's view, it is increasingly linked to extremism. Prevention and exit programs are to cover right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism, Islamism and groups such as the “Reichsbürger.” The CDU also wants a joint federal and state database on violence-oriented left-wing extremism, modeled on existing databases on terrorism and right-wing extremism.

The CDU wants an investment program to fix equipment shortfalls in fire departments and to give volunteer brigades more financial support. The bonus for youth fire brigades is to quadruple. The platform argues that fire and disaster protection does not work without volunteers.

Fire departments should get new vehicles and better technology. The state should pay more for this. Youth fire brigades should get 100 euros per member instead of 25. Young firefighters should get money toward a driver's license.

The investment program is to fund vehicles, parking bays, fail-safe communication equipment and digital tools. The per-capita payment for active members of volunteer fire brigades is to be made permanent, and local village brigades are to remain even after voluntary municipal mergers. A central procurement office is to help small municipalities with purchases; funding is to switch to percentage-based shares with higher rates and also cover used vehicles. Emergency-services radio, Wi-Fi, tablets and a firefighter app are also planned. The fire service school in Bad Köstritz is to be expanded; until then the CDU wants to buy in external courses.

The CDU wants to reorganize disaster protection together with counties and independent cities and to warn the public more effectively. This includes more sirens, a separate Thuringian warning day and a firefighting and disaster protection base at Erfurt-Weimar airport. Preparations are also to be made for civil protection in the event of war.

The CDU wants to warn people better when there is danger. Towns should get more sirens. Thuringia should have its own warning day. Firefighting helicopters and planes should be based at Erfurt-Weimar airport. The CDU wants to talk with the federal government about shelters.

The CDU wants to create an effective municipal command structure and build more capacity to protect critical infrastructure. The statewide warning day is to take place half a year apart from the national one, and the MOWAS warning system is to work reliably. To fight forest and vegetation fires, all firefighting ponds in the forests are to be kept and renovated. The CDU is pushing for a federal logistics center and a mobile care unit for several thousand people to be located in Thuringia. It wants to discuss bunkers or other forms of shelter with the federal government.

The CDU wants to reward volunteers in fire brigades, mountain rescue, aid organizations and the THW (federal technical relief agency) with a statewide discount card. It also plans a service anniversary payment and an annual emergency services day meant to attract young people to volunteering.

Volunteer helpers should get a service card. It makes things like buses, swimming pools and museums cheaper. Long service should be rewarded with money. A yearly day in schools should get children interested in volunteering.

The card is to offer discounts on state and municipal services, for example local public transport, swimming pools and museums. The anniversary payment is to be tied to the fire protection medal and the disaster protection award and paid retroactively for the highest anniversary already reached. Volunteers in psychosocial emergency care are to be put on an equal footing with fire and disaster protection personnel regarding time off and compensation. The emergency services day is to take place in schools and municipalities.

The CDU calls for mandatory retention of IP addresses and connection data for a minimum period in order to solve and prevent serious crimes. According to the platform, security should take priority over the individual's data protection. Artificial intelligence is also to support investigative work.

The CDU wants IP addresses to be stored by law. An IP address shows which connection was active on the internet. A judge must allow police to read the data. Police should also use artificial intelligence. Security should matter more than data protection.

The stored connection data could only be read after a judge's order. The platform names fighting child sexual abuse material and child abuse, and preventing terrorist attacks, as the purpose. Artificial intelligence is to be used for analyzing large volumes of data, gathering evidence and reviewing distressing material. The CDU considers the use of such systems indispensable in these areas.

The CDU rejects stricter rules for legal gun ownership, arguing that Germany already has very strict gun laws. Instead, it wants to step up action against illegal gun possession. In its view, hunters and traditional and sport shooters should no longer be put at a disadvantage.

The CDU does not want stricter gun laws. It says the laws are already very strict. Criminals do not follow laws anyway. The CDU wants to do more against illegal guns. Hunters and sport shooters should not be treated unfairly.

The platform argues that criminals and terrorists do not follow gun laws aimed at law-abiding citizens. Measures against illegal gun possession are therefore to be strengthened. What the CDU sees as one-sided discrimination against hunters and traditional and sport shooters is to end.

The CDU wants to preserve, support and protect Jewish life in Thuringia and its institutions. Against antisemitism it relies on more education and awareness work and on rigorous prosecution.

The CDU wants to protect Jewish life in Thuringia. It wants more education about hatred of Jews. People who spread this hatred should be punished hard. This also applies online.

Besides Jewish life itself, schools, community centers, cemeteries and synagogues are to be protected and supported. The CDU wants to expand education and awareness work together with partners. Hatred of Jews in public spaces, in schools and online is to be prosecuted and punished with full severity. The party speaks out against indifference and forgetting history.

The CDU acknowledges the contribution Muslims living in Thuringia make to the community. It rejects political Islamism and will not accept parallel societies with their own rules alongside the constitutional order.

The CDU says many Muslims contribute to Thuringia. But it rejects political Islamism. Nobody should live by their own laws outside the state's rules.

The platform notes that many Muslims have found a new home in Thuringia and recognizes their contribution. Political Islamism is rejected. The CDU will not tolerate groups that set their own laws outside the democratic order and the rule of law.