FDP on public safety

The FDP wants to strengthen programs that help people leave extremist structures. Such services should also reach people in clan crime and the Querdenker (COVID-skeptic) scene who have so far been out of reach for state agencies.

Some people end up in extreme groups. Getting out is often hard. The FDP wants to strengthen programs that help with this. This should also cover criminal clans and the Querdenker scene.

The platform cites "Spurwechsel" as an example, a program for people from a far-right environment. Existing programs are to be developed further and also serve prevention. In the FDP's view, the strength of a liberal society also shows in offering a way back to those who want to return.

The FDP wants security policy not to come at the expense of the fundamental rights of law-abiding citizens. It rejects the Staatstrojaner, meaning government spyware on private devices. At the same time, it wants a state under the rule of law that acts firmly against extremism, terrorism and organized crime.

The FDP wants to protect safety and freedom together. The state should not spy on innocent people. The FDP rejects the Staatstrojaner. That is government spy software for phones and computers. Still, the state should act firmly against criminals.

The platform sets out the principle that security serves freedom and that citizens must be able to trust that their rights are protected. Extremism, terrorism and organized crime are seen as threats to democracy and an open society. Police and courts are to be well equipped and the security architecture improved. Police, fire and emergency personnel are to receive appreciation and dependable support.

The FDP wants to raise annual police hiring to 3,000, provided there are enough suitable applicants. This is meant to ease the heavy workload on officers. In addition, dropout rates in police training are to be lowered and a teaching bonus introduced for officers who train recruits.

The police in the state have a lot of work. The FDP wants to hire 3,000 new officers every year. This applies if there are enough good applicants. Fewer people should drop out of police studies. Officers who train young colleagues should get extra pay.

The platform points to improvements in recent years in patrol cars, work smartphones, IT, protective gear and hiring numbers, but still sees the workload as high. Better individual counseling and support are meant to counter the high dropout rate in police studies. The teaching bonus is intended for officers who train newcomers in patrol and shift duty. The police are also to be further strengthened with more staff and modern equipment.

The FDP wants to keep police recruit numbers high and bring more specialists and career changers into the force. It points to rising professional demands on the police. It also wants to make specialization and promotion within the police easier.

The FDP wants to train many new police officers. Experts from other jobs should be able to join the police too. Officers should find it easier to specialize. Moving up in the police should become simpler.

The two-tier career structure is to stay. The program "Spezialisten zu Polizisten" (specialists to police officers) is to grow and be advertised more, and the FDP wants to look at further entry routes for career changers. After their bachelor's degree, trainees are to get more targeted support and a faster route into the criminal police. Experienced officers should move into higher pay grades more easily after advanced courses, backed by financial incentives. The FDP also wants to check which tasks in state-level police agencies such as the LZPD really need to be done by police officers.

The FDP wants to make the office of the Polizeibeauftragte (police commissioner) more independent and have the state parliament fill it in the future. The police complaints system is to be developed further. The party backs rotating ID markings for officers in closed units only under one condition.

The police have a commissioner. Police officers can turn to this person. The FDP wants the state parliament to elect this person. Complaints from citizens should also be handled better.

The commissioner currently sits with the interior minister, is not bound by instructions, and serves as a contact for police staff. Praise and complaints from citizens are to be received through one central technical channel, and review processes are to become more transparent and independent without creating duplicate structures. The FDP would support random ID markings that change with each operation only if it turns out that cases against officers in NRW were dropped because the person involved could not be identified. The program also calls for political backing for the police and swift prosecution of attacks and insults.

The FDP wants to improve lifetime working-time accounts for police, fire, and rescue services and modernize the system of allowances. It sees this as a sign of appreciation and a way to make public service more attractive.

Emergency workers do a lot of overtime. The FDP wants these hours saved in an account. Extra pay should also be brought up to date. This applies to police, fire, and rescue services.

The accounts are meant to secure overtime hours and maintain the quality of work. Following the hardship allowance already introduced for child abuse investigators, the whole allowance structure is to be overhauled. The goal is up-to-date allowances for police, fire, and rescue services.

The FDP wants to examine where tasks of the county police authorities can be pooled without reducing the police on the ground. The minimum number of officers in rural counties is to rise.

The FDP wants the police to be visible in the countryside too. Rural counties should get more police officers. Some tasks should be handled together in one place. But local police should not shrink.

As an example of useful pooling, the program cites the handling of the child abuse cases in Lügde, after which certain crimes are dealt with by the main criminal investigation offices. Pooling is to be examined with a sense of proportion. The minimum density of officers set in the staffing formula for rural counties is to be raised further. Reliable staffing levels are to exist in hot spots and in the countryside alike.

The FDP wants to speed up the digitization of police work and train officers broadly for it. Digital processes are meant to cut paperwork and free up staff for duty on the ground. More technology and personnel are planned for law enforcement online.

The police should get modern computers and digital tools. That means less paperwork. Officers then have more time for work on the street. The police should also get stronger against crime on the internet.

All county police authorities are to get modern IT, and patrol cars are to get digital equipment. This is tied to a broad training drive. Because many crimes take place in the digital sphere, the FDP wants to provide additional staff and new technology. The Cybercrime Competence Center NRW is to be strengthened further.

The FDP wants to equip all county police authorities in NRW with tasers right away. It points out that, based on experience so far, attacks on officers drop sharply through the deterrent effect alone.

A taser is a device that stops people with electric shocks. The FDP wants police all over NRW to get tasers. This should happen right away. The FDP says officers are then attacked less often.

After a pilot project, the devices are already standard equipment in several authorities. According to the program, attacks on police officers fall by more than 80 percent simply because of the preventive effect. Statewide rollout is meant to increase officers' protection.

The FDP wants to continue the cross-agency approach against organized crime and criminal clans and combine it with prevention. Financial investigations are to be strengthened so that assets of unexplained origin can be confiscated.

The FDP wants to keep cracking down on criminal gangs and clans. Many agencies should work together. Children should be protected from these groups. Investigators should look more closely at the criminals' money.

Besides security and public order agencies, other bodies such as customs are to stay involved in planning and enforcement. Where possible, the FDP wants to keep using immigration law against criminal clan members. New prevention concepts are meant to stop clans from recruiting young people and to protect children and those who want to leave. Following the "follow the money" principle, the party calls for a constitutionally sound rule for federal and state authorities to confiscate assets of unclear origin under certain conditions.

The FDP wants to step up both prevention and prosecution of extremism and politically motivated violence. Studies of unreported crime are meant to capture such offenses better. Extremism in public service is to be pursued consistently without placing the police under blanket suspicion.

The FDP wants to do more against extremism, racism, and hatred of Jews. Studies should show how many such crimes really happen. Police and courts should learn more about hatred of Jews. Right-wing extremists in the police should be pursued.

Studies of unreported crime look at offenses that were never reported to the police. The program also wants to pay more attention to misogyny, which it names as a motive of many far-right offenders, and to set up prevention programs. The antisemitism commissioner is to get more support, and training in public service is to teach about historical and current forms of antisemitism. The extremism officers in police authorities are to be strengthened. The FDP supports academic research into right-wing extremism in public service.

The FDP wants a fundamental review of how federal and state security agencies cooperate against terrorism and extremism, and wants a third federalism commission set up for this. The counter-terrorism database is to be shut down because the party considers it unsuccessful.

Germany has up to 40 security agencies. The FDP wants to check how well they work together. A commission of the federal and state governments should do this. The FDP wants to shut down the counter-terrorism database.

The program cites the NSU scandal and the Anis Amri case as reasons. The review is to focus on the three joint security centers where police forces and intelligence services share information. These centers are to get their own legal basis, and the separation of police and intelligence services is to remain. The aim is better networking and information sharing, with ongoing checks that civil rights are respected. The FDP wants to support related plans of the federal government.

The FDP wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) in NRW through redesigned training and more experts. At the same time, a parliamentary commissioner for the service is to improve oversight by the state parliament without limiting the agency's ability to work.

The domestic intelligence service watches extremists. The FDP wants to train its staff better. There should be a special degree program for this. The state parliament should be able to check the service better. A special commissioner should help with that.

The plan includes a dual degree program with subjects such as extremism research, sociology, psychology, IT, history, politics, and law, plus uniform standards for training. The commissioner is to have full access to processes and information and help decide what is put before the parliamentary oversight panel. The commissioner is also to take part in the meetings of the G-10 commission and their preparation, which requires amending section 30 of the NRW intelligence service law. Parliamentary groups are to be allowed to bring security-cleared expert advisers to oversight panel meetings.

The FDP calls on the federal government to carry out a full review of gun law. In its view, the latest tightening burdened legal gun owners such as hunters and sport shooters with needless red tape. People deemed dangerous and extremists should not be allowed to have guns.

The FDP wants the federal government to rework gun law. Hunters and sport shooters should face less red tape. Extremists and dangerous people should not own guns. Agencies should share data better for this.

The program demands a clear line between legal ownership and illegal ownership or ownership by dangerous people. Gun licensing authorities are to get more support in training their case workers. Data sharing between agencies is to improve. Illegal arms trafficking is to be fought harder at the European level.

The FDP wants to train and equip municipal public order services better and expand cooperation with the police across the state. The services are to be available at night and on weekends as well.

Cities and towns have their own public order services. The FDP wants to train and equip them better. They should work more closely with the police. They should also be on duty at night and on weekends.

Partnerships between police and municipal order offices are to be strengthened and extended statewide. Uniform standards for training are planned, with the police contributing their experience. The order services are to be connected to the BOS radio network, the digital radio system used by security and rescue agencies. This is meant to improve communication and protect staff.

The FDP wants to put disaster protection on a broader footing because it expects more floods and wildfires as well as risks from hazardous substances and attacks on critical infrastructure. Volunteer work in fire brigades and aid organizations is to be strengthened.

The FDP wants the state to be better prepared for disasters. These include floods and wildfires. Warnings to the public should get better. Volunteers in the fire brigade should get more support.

Protection goals are to be set concretely and scenarios practiced regularly. Priorities are off-road vehicles, better early warning, real-time digital situation maps, and more training. For equipment bought through the federal government, the FDP presses for faster delivery; it wants to follow the nationwide warning day in September 2022 closely and demand a quick analysis if problems occur. The state parliament is to get a yearly report. Volunteers are to be supported, for example through better balance with family and work, and attacks on emergency workers are to be prosecuted under a zero-tolerance line.

The FDP wants to replace the term "child pornography" in the Criminal Code because, in its view, the word trivializes abuse. It also wants to expand prevention services for people with pedophilic tendencies.

The law uses the term "child pornography." The FDP thinks this term sounds too harmless. It wants a different term in the law. It also wants more help for people with pedophilic tendencies. This should stop crimes before they happen.

The FDP argues that such images show the abuse and rape of children and are never made voluntarily. The term in the Criminal Code should therefore be replaced. The party also wants to expand programs such as "Kein Täter werden" (Don't Offend). People affected should be able to find information about their condition and about support easily, ideally at contact points close to home.

Violence against public sector employees should be consistently prosecuted in every office. Those affected should be able to demand that their employer file a criminal complaint on their behalf.

Some people attack or insult government employees. The FDP wants such acts to always be prosecuted. The employer should file the complaint if the employee wishes. Those affected should not have to give their home address.

The platform points to a rise in insults, threats and physical attacks. As witnesses, those affected should not have to reveal private data, for example by giving the office address or a service number instead of their name. On request, the employer should also enforce civil claims, provided they have a chance of success.