FDP on public safety

The FDP wants to raise police staffing in Bremen from about 2,750 to 3,300 and in Bremerhaven from 490 to 580. Pay is to rise to Hamburg's level, and officers are to be relieved of tasks outside their core work.

The FDP wants more police officers. Bremen should have 3,300 and Bremerhaven 580. They should earn as much as officers in Hamburg. Other offices should take over some tasks from the police.

The extra staff is meant to cut overtime and case backlogs and allow more presence in places such as Bremen's main station. Training new recruits and filling all positions take priority; retired officers are to be able to work part-time temporarily. Promotions and performance reviews are to be transparent, and the Freie Heilfürsorge (state-paid health care for officers) is to stay secure. A review is to determine which tasks administrative staff or the public order office can take over. Balancing family and work is to be improved.

The FDP wants to fight political extremism regardless of where it comes from. Extremist associations are to be banned, and organizations that work with such groups are to lose public funding.

The FDP wants to act against extremism. Extremism means that groups reject democracy. Such groups should be banned. Anyone who works with them should get no money from the state.

The platform stresses that this should apply to extremism from any political direction. Bans are to be imposed consistently. The loss of public funding is to affect all organizations that cooperate with extremist groups.

The FDP wants to equip the police with modern hardware, mobile devices, and specialized software and to introduce Tasers in Bremen. Prosecutors' offices and courts are to get more staff and digital technology so that proceedings take less time.

The FDP wants to give the police better computers and phones. The police in Bremen should also get Tasers. Tasers are devices that briefly stun a person with electricity. Courts should also get more staff and technology.

According to the platform, the police lose much working time to administration, outdated technology, and breaks between paper and digital formats. Mobile devices are to get dictation and speech recognition software, a police messenger, a lookup app for checking police records, a document scanner, and measuring software for accidents. Data is to be stored on encrypted police servers rather than on the devices. Forensics units are to get software, equipment, and specialists for fast analysis of data that holds up in court.

The FDP wants to equip police officers with bodycams and emergency vehicles with dashcams, including fire trucks and ambulances. The cameras are meant to deter attackers and make it easier to solve attacks on emergency personnel.

The FDP wants to protect emergency workers better. Police officers should wear cameras on their bodies. Fire trucks and ambulances should also get cameras. The cameras should scare off attackers.

The platform cites attacks on emergency personnel, including on New Year's Eve in Berlin, as the reason. The cameras are to be used within the limits of data protection law. Dashcams are explicitly intended for fire trucks and ambulances as well. The FDP expects the camera alone to have a deterrent effect and to make crimes easier to solve.

The FDP wants police in Bremerhaven to keep their Tasers and wants to introduce them in the city of Bremen as well. The platform sees them as a milder option than a firearm.

A Taser is a device that gives an electric shock. Police in Bremerhaven have these devices. The FDP wants them to keep them. Police in the city of Bremen should get Tasers too.

According to the platform, the trial run in Bremerhaven ended successfully. The FDP wants to keep the devices in use there and also equip police in the city of Bremen with them. The stated reasoning is that Tasers are milder than firearms and carry less risk of escalation than pepper spray, for example.

The FDP wants a police force that stays approachable in the neighborhoods and wants to expand online crime reporting. People with disabilities should be able to file reports and make emergency calls without barriers.

Police should be easy to reach in the neighborhoods. People should be able to report crimes online easily. Deaf and blind people should also reach the police well in an emergency. For this, there should be video calls with a chat.

Neighborhood police stations are to be kept, and the platform calls community contact officers indispensable as local points of contact. Online reporting should work even for people with little technical knowledge and cover more offenses, at least to the extent offered in Lower Saxony. In the future, users should be able to upload documents and verify their identity in a legally secure way. For the police dispatch center and report intake at stations, the FDP calls for video calls with a written chat function.

The FDP wants more staff for the Ordnungsamt (public order office) in Bremen and wants checks to take place at night and on Sundays and holidays too. Streets and squares should also be cleaned more often and more trash cans set up, because the platform sees order and cleanliness as shaping quality of life.

The public order office in Bremen should get more staff. It should also do checks at night and on holidays. The city should clean streets and squares more often. There should be more and bigger trash cans.

The public order office is to be more present on streets, in squares and in parks to act against littering, and is to monitor traffic more closely. An information campaign is meant to make the Mängelmelder (a defect-reporting tool) better known so residents report dirt and other problems. Neighborhood managers are to coordinate cleanliness and act as the link between city offices and municipal companies. Street sweepers and manual cleaning crews are to work at gradually shorter intervals, and hot spots are to be checked much more often. The FDP wants to reduce the pigeon population with so-called pigeon hotels.

The FDP wants to make the area around Bremen's main train station safer and cleaner through more checks and more frequent cleaning. At the same time, it supports a permanent drug consumption room near the station so that marginalized groups are not simply pushed elsewhere.

The FDP wants to make the main station in Bremen safer and cleaner. Police and public order staff should do more checks there. People with a drug addiction should get a fixed room with help nearby. Helpers at the station should report damage and dirt.

Violations are to be punished consistently, and graffiti and trash removed quickly. The drug consumption room should be within easy walking distance, and services such as substitution doctors and support programs should move with it. Until then, the meeting point for the drug scene at the Gustav-Deetjen-Tunnel is to open around the clock, staffed at night by the public order office or private security. The platform also plans more joint patrols by police and social workers, so-called station buddies as clearly recognizable contacts, and plainclothes officers raising awareness about pickpocketing. On BSAG buses and trams, more private security staff are to ride along when there is cause.

The FDP wants to better protect children and teenagers from violence and sexual abuse. Reporting offices are to become more visible so that authorities learn of more cases and can act.

The FDP wants to protect children better from violence. Police and youth welfare offices should name fixed contact persons. Everyone should know where to report a suspicion. Police and courts should get more training on this.

Police and youth welfare offices are to name contact persons who are made known especially in places where children and teenagers are cared for. A regular youth protection dialogue is planned with youth welfare offices, schools, security agencies and prosecutors. Artificial intelligence is to help more with reviewing image and video material, because this work is described as time-consuming and stressful. Police officers and judges are to receive better training, including joint courses across the institutions involved.

The FDP wants to strengthen the rights of crime victims. Because, according to the platform, an especially large share of victim compensation claims fail in the state of Bremen, a research project is to look into the reasons.

The FDP wants to help crime victims more. In Bremen, the authorities reject many claims for compensation. Researchers should find out why. Victims should get more support during court cases.

The research project is to examine why claims under the Victims Compensation Act are rejected. The findings are meant to lead to improvements in the evidence and cooperation duties placed on victims. The FDP wants to expand psychosocial support during criminal proceedings and make it better known.

The FDP wants to do more to prevent crime and to encourage civil courage among the public. Schools, clubs, employers and public campaigns are to teach how to help when a crime happens without putting oneself at risk.

The FDP wants fewer crimes to happen. People should look and help when a crime happens. They should not put themselves in danger. Schools, clubs and employers should teach this.

In the platform's view, safety is not the job of the police alone; all bodies working on violence and crime prevention should cooperate more closely, and the police should offer more advice. A coordinated school, youth and social policy is meant to keep young people from criminal careers. Schools are to teach strategies for acting and de-escalating, and sports clubs, youth centers and faith communities are to get support for this. Employers are to be backed in offering courses for staff, and a certification for companies is to be introduced. More adult education courses and campaigns at busy locations are also planned.

The FDP wants to push back organized crime through constant checks of relevant venues and businesses. At the same time, a network of agencies and institutions is to help people who want to leave criminal structures.

The FDP wants to act against criminal gangs. Police should check certain bars and shops very often. Other offices should help the police with this. People who want to leave a gang should get help.

Checks are to target relevant restaurants, gambling halls, kiosks and shisha bars, along with regular traffic stops. The public order office, customs, trade inspectors and building and health authorities are to back up the police more. The platform argues that only permanent enforcement of the law prevents lawless spaces from emerging. For people who want out, youth and women's centers, school and social agencies, and employment and health offices are to offer early help together.

The FDP wants to counter places with concentrated crime and use every means available to the state to do so. In weakened neighborhoods, it should be possible to suspend the social housing quota, and unsafe places are to be named openly and improved in a targeted way.

Some areas have a lot of crime. The FDP wants to change that. The city should name these places clearly. There should be more police, more light and more cleaning there. In weak neighborhoods, the duty to build social housing could be paused.

According to the platform, suspending the mandatory social housing quota is meant to produce a better social mix. Tailored measures are to be developed for each named location, such as cleanliness, good lighting, better infrastructure, open building design, emergency call boxes, more police presence and private security services. Public administration, police and residents are to talk to each other more. Housing companies are to be involved as well, because hot spots often form around apartment blocks.

The FDP wants to give fire departments, rescue services and aid organizations lasting support in staff and modern equipment. The state of Bremen is also to meet its responsibilities in disaster response and provide its own resources.

The FDP wants to strengthen the fire service. There should be new fire stations and more staff. Children and teenagers should join the fire service early. The state should give more money for protection in disasters.

The platform's target is ten firefighters on the scene within eight minutes; to reach it, the FDP backs new fire stations and filling vacant posts. Children's and youth fire brigades are to be expanded, and both paid and volunteer service made more attractive. Equipment, vehicles and protective gear are to be modernized continuously. For disaster response, the state is to fund training in local authorities as well as vehicles and equipment. Fire stations and THW (federal technical relief agency) sites are to become so-called lighthouses with their own power supply, serving as contact points during a blackout.

The FDP rejects stricter gun laws, which it already considers very strict. Instead, existing rules are to be enforced better.

The FDP does not want stricter rules for guns. It thinks the rules are strict enough already. But offices should check the rules better. They should get more resources for this.

In the platform's view, legal gun owners handle their weapons responsibly, and hunters contribute to the ecosystem. Weapons authorities and municipalities are to be better equipped to enforce the rules in place. Police crime reports are in the future to state whether a crime was committed with a legal or an illegal weapon.

The FDP wants to act against every form of extremism, whether right-wing, left-wing, religious, or nationalist. The platform calls right-wing extremism the greatest danger to democracy, while also demanding tougher action against left-wing extremist crime.

The FDP wants to fight extremism. This applies to right-wing and left-wing extremists. Right-wing extremist groups should be banned. Groups that work with left-wing extremists should get no state money.

Right-wing extremist associations are to be banned and right-wing extremists considered dangerous are to be monitored more closely. Security agencies should better protect especially vulnerable groups and their facilities, and people with dangerous right-wing extremist views should not work in public service. On left-wing extremism, the FDP calls on all political and social actors to distance themselves clearly and wants to cut state funding for organizations that cooperate with left-wing extremist groups. It also proposes a research project on radicalization in the left-wing scene and an expanded counseling service for people leaving it. Conspiracy ideologies are to receive more attention as well.

The FDP wants to actively combat antisemitism and record antisemitic crimes more precisely. Schools would be required to report antisemitic incidents. Public authorities would stop working with openly anti-Israel or antisemitic organizations.

The FDP wants to fight hatred of Jews. Schools should have to report antisemitic incidents. The police should count such crimes more exactly. Antisemitic groups should get no more state money.

When antisemitic crimes are recorded, a distinction is to be made between left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist backgrounds, and this breakdown should appear in the domestic intelligence agency's annual report. The platform argues that prevention and exit programs can only be targeted this way. The reporting duty for schools follows a demand by the federal antisemitism commissioner; the procedure is to be bundled within the authorities, while help for schools should be available quickly. The city and state are to end cooperation with openly anti-Israel and antisemitic associations, mosques, and organizations and stop funding them.

The FDP wants to support projects that prevent Islamist radicalization and help people leave the scene. Mosque congregations that support terrorism should receive no public money. Imams should more often be able to train at state universities.

The FDP wants to prevent Islamism. Schools should teach more about it. Mosques that support terrorism should get no state money. Imams should more often be able to study at German universities.

Awareness programs in schools are to be expanded, and people who are already radicalized should be offered ways out. For mosque congregations that support terrorism, the platform calls for examining bans on associations as a last resort. Imam training at state universities is to be grounded in the Basic Law and offer an alternative to training that can in some cases be influenced by foreign states. According to the FDP, this also benefits the large majority of Muslims in Bremen who have nothing to do with radical ideologies.

The FDP wants the state to respond faster to crimes by young people, arguing that this has the strongest educational effect and prevents further offenses. Fast-track proceedings are to be used more often. A "Haus des Jugendrechts" (House of Juvenile Justice) is to be set up in the city of Bremen.

The FDP wants faster proceedings when young people commit crimes. The response should come soon after the offense. Police, prosecutors, and youth services should work together more closely. Bremen should get a House of Juvenile Justice for this.

Police, juvenile court assistance, prosecutors, and the court are to handle suitable cases in a coordinated way and with priority, with a hearing scheduled at short notice. Cases with clear evidence qualify, for example when there is a confession or only a few witnesses. More serious violent crimes and cases that are hard to solve stay in regular proceedings. In simplified juvenile proceedings, the court may not impose a youth prison sentence. The House of Juvenile Justice, which already exists in Bremerhaven, is to serve as a coordination point for the agencies involved.

The FDP wants better staffing for Bremen's prison system so that prisoners can be successfully reintegrated into society. A probation app is to remind convicted people of appointments and court conditions and thus prevent avoidable imprisonment.

The FDP wants more staff in prisons. Prisoners should be able to live without crime after release. An app should remind convicted people of appointments and duties. This way, fewer people should have to go to prison.

The success of individual measures is to be checked through evaluations of reintegration and reoffending. Inmates classified as dangerous extremists are to be supervised by officers trained in the relevant ideology and, where possible, kept apart from vulnerable fellow inmates. The app is aimed at people with suspended sentences, those released early, and people under post-release supervision, and it delivers messages from the authorities, especially the probation service. It is also meant to reach people who can hardly be contacted by mail or phone, for example because they are homeless. The goal is to avoid revocations of probation and the resulting prison costs for the state.

The FDP wants to permit pyrotechnics in soccer stadiums under safe conditions. In the program's view, the current strict ban has not made spectators safer. Pilot events with fans, clubs, and the association are planned as a first step.

Fireworks are banned in stadiums today. The FDP wants to allow them, but only with clear rules. The party says the ban has not made stadiums safer. First there should be test events.

The program calls for at least six pilot events at which pyrotechnics are set off under controlled conditions. The model is the so-called "Chemnitzer Weg" (Chemnitz approach). The venues are the Weserstadion, Platz 11, and the Stadion am Panzenberg. Fan representatives, clubs, and the Bremen soccer association are to take part. The FDP points out that fan groups have long proposed dialogue and legal, responsible use.

The FDP opposes Bremen billing the German Football League for extra policing at high-risk matches. In the program's view, this hurts Werder Bremen competitively and is a step toward privatizing public security.

Some soccer matches need a lot of police. Bremen sends the soccer league a bill for this. The league gets the money back from Werder Bremen. The FDP is against these bills. It says security is the job of the state.

The program explains that the league passes the fees on to Werder Bremen. It says no other German state charges such fees for Bundesliga matches. The FDP sees this as a threat to the club's competitiveness and to Bremen as a Bundesliga location. It stresses the club's importance for the city's profile and economy.