FDP on public safety

The FDP wants to enlarge the state police's cybercrime units and found a cybersecurity center for Schleswig-Holstein. The platform says online crime, espionage and sabotage are growing and that fighting them must not fail for lack of resources.

The FDP wants to do more against crime on the internet. The police should get stronger expert teams for this. The state should found a center for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity means protection against attacks on computers and networks. This should keep power grids and other key systems safe.

The plan includes quick-reaction teams, better digital forensics skills and a stronger central cybercrime contact office that also gives preventive advice in cooperation with the state data protection center. Structures that reach across state borders are to be supported. The new cybersecurity center would focus on teaching and monitoring security standards. The platform points to the increasingly decentralized energy supply, which it says must be protected against hacker attacks. Laws are to be reviewed continuously to see whether they meet current data security requirements.

The FDP rejects what it sees as unnecessary intrusions on fundamental rights and is critical of new or expanded powers for security agencies. Instead, it relies on consistently applying existing law and equipping the agencies well.

The FDP wants to protect people's basic rights. It is against more and more new powers for police and agencies. Agencies should apply the laws that already exist better. For this they should have enough staff and good equipment.

According to the platform, limits on freedom are only justified if they serve the freedom of all. In the FDP's view, the Basic Law and the state constitution are sufficient for striking this balance; fundamental rights are not privileges even in a pandemic. Security structures should be geared to actual threats while taking the public's sense of safety seriously. Gaps in enforcement are to be closed.

The FDP wants to create more positions in the state police, relieve officers of tasks unrelated to policing and make the job more attractive. This includes better promotion prospects, counting the police allowance toward pensions again and more psychosocial support.

The FDP wants more police officers in the state. The police should have fewer tasks that are not police work. The job should become more attractive. For this there should be better pay and more chances for promotion. After hard missions there should be more help.

A jointly developed staffing plan is also meant to help reduce accumulated overtime. The second riot police unit is to be completed, the water police upgraded and the training institutions better equipped. Upgrades of positions in all career tracks, a review of how senior-service posts are graded and fewer documentation duties are planned. The FDP says it will not accept attacks on officers and will continue the respect campaign. Crime prevention work is to be evaluated, supplemented with neighborhood concepts and given more weight through the local crime prevention councils.

The FDP wants to free the police from tasks outside their core work by shifting responsibilities elsewhere. Documentation duties are to be slimmed down and administrative work handed to administrative staff.

The FDP wants to take work off the police. Officers should do fewer tasks that are not real police work. They should fill out fewer forms. Office staff should do the office work.

Tasks that are not genuine police work are to move to other bodies. The FDP wants to reduce documentation requirements and transfer administrative duties to administrative personnel. Equipment, especially digital equipment, is to be reviewed continuously and kept up to date. The party also wants to start a sports support unit within the police, modeled on those in other German states.

The FDP wants to keep police stations across the state and continue treating home burglaries as a priority of police work. According to the platform, people's safety should not depend on where they live.

The FDP wants police stations everywhere in the state. The police should work hard against home break-ins. People should be equally safe everywhere. The state should keep helping people protect their homes.

The platform argues that burglaries, especially by professional traveling groups of offenders, can shake trust in the protection the state provides. Police stations are to remain in place on the basis of a concept for presence across the whole state. The state's burglary protection program is to continue.

The FDP wants a pilot project to test whether case data can be used to calculate the likelihood of future crimes and how artificial intelligence can be used by the police. The trial is to be open-ended and pay special attention to fundamental rights.

The FDP wants to test something new for the police. Computers would use old cases to work out where crimes are likely. This is called predictive policing. Experts should watch the test. People's basic rights should be respected.

The analysis is to be object-based, meaning it relates to places and objects rather than individual persons. The project is to have academic and legal-scholarly support. The use of artificial intelligence is also to be examined. The outcome is to remain open.

The FDP wants to make crimes committed online a priority for the state police and significantly increase staff and equipment for it. Specialization is to happen not only at the State Criminal Police Office but also in local stations.

The FDP wants to do more against crime on the internet. The police should get more staff and better equipment for this. Local police stations should work on it too. The police should be able to hire computer experts.

The platform notes that the risks of digitalization are growing along with its opportunities. Beyond the existing focus at the State Criminal Police Office, day-to-day investigative work in stations statewide is to be backed with more personnel. The FDP also wants to create conditions that make it possible to recruit IT specialists for police service.

The FDP wants to equip the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) with enough staff and technology to use its existing powers effectively. It rejects new surveillance measures unless an overall review of existing powers shows them to be strictly necessary.

The FDP wants to give the domestic intelligence agency more staff and modern equipment. This agency watches groups that work against democracy. But it should not get new powers to watch people. The FDP would only change that if it is truly necessary.

The platform considers rules that place everyone under blanket suspicion unnecessary when weighing security against freedom. Because extremist groups are retreating into virtual spaces, the agency's technical equipment is to match that of extremists. This requires personnel able to assess technically complex matters. Cooperation with other state agencies is to grow, especially in monitoring extremist activity online.

The FDP wants to act against political, religious and ideological extremism, with particular attention to right-wing extremism. Public funding is not to reach extremist organizations, while exit programs are to keep receiving support.

The FDP wants to fight extremism. Extremism means people reject democracy. The FDP means right-wing, left-wing and religious groups. Such groups should get no money from the state. Programs that help people leave these groups should keep getting money.

On right-wing extremism, the platform names adequate resources for the authorities and support for counter-programs as goals. The FDP wants to act against left-wing extremism politically and with the means of the rule of law, and objects to it being played down. It views movements such as “Querdenker,” “Extinction Rebellion” and “Ende Gelände” with concern because, in its view, parts of them presumably break existing law. Support for exit programs such as KAST e. V. and the regional counseling teams is to continue and possibly expand.

The FDP wants a prison system that protects society and prepares inmates for a life without crime. More staff, vocational training and expanded victim support are meant to achieve this.

The FDP wants to improve prisons. There should be more staff. Inmates should be able to learn and train for a job. That way they should not commit crimes later. Victims of crime should get more help.

Staffing in the prison service is to keep growing, supported by a recruitment campaign. Plans include better protection from violence in custody, suicide prevention, an epidemic plan, statewide standards for permitted items and a criminological service. Young offenders are to be rehabilitated more through work programs, and the success of measures is to be evaluated. Inmates classified as potential threats are to be supervised by specially trained staff and, where possible, separated from prisoners vulnerable to radicalization. Cooperation with organizations such as Weißer Ring and witness protection programs in courts is to expand.

The FDP wants to keep modernizing fire and disaster protection and update the state's 10-point plan. Because climate change may make natural disasters more frequent, it considers an effective warning system, including digital tools, necessary.

The FDP wants better protection in disasters. Helpers should get modern equipment. There should be a good warning system, also a digital one. The federal, state and county levels should work together better. Hospitals should be able to practice for emergencies.

Command staffs at federal, state and county level are to coordinate better, while federal-state responsibilities stay as they are. In rural areas, the FDP wants fire protection organized across municipalities so that equipment and personnel are shared. Hospitals are to implement alarm and emergency planning and receive funds to practice for situations such as power outages, cyberattacks or mass casualties. Support for responders after stressful operations is to be expanded.

The FDP wants a statewide recruitment strategy to make volunteering in fire departments and aid organizations more attractive. It wants to avoid compulsory fire brigades where possible.

Many people volunteer in fire departments and rescue groups. The FDP wants more people to join. There should be a plan for the whole state. Fire brigades for children and teens should get support. Nobody should be forced into fire service if it can be avoided.

The platform points to demographic change and to the pandemic having hampered recruitment. The FDP wants to support children's and youth fire brigades, back new ones and help the state firefighters' association with recruitment. Brigades are to be able to organize more flexibly according to local conditions and face less red tape. Uniform training courses for digital equipment such as drones are to be developed with the state firefighters' association.

The FDP wants to fight group-based hostility in all its forms and set up an action program against hate crime that also covers offenses committed online. The main goal is to keep hate from turning into physical violence.

The FDP wants to act against hate toward certain groups. This includes hate toward Jews, women or gay people. It plans a program against hate crimes. The program also covers insults on the internet. The aim is less violence.

The program lists antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, antiziganism, transphobia and anti-Muslim racism, among others. Police are to get support so they can better pursue criminal behavior, including stalking. Crimes against LGBTIQ people are to be recorded by state and federal police using uniform standards. The FDP also backs a national action plan against homophobia and transphobia that includes training for police and the judiciary. The Institute for Sexual Medicine and Forensic Psychiatry at Kiel University is to remain secured.

The FDP rejects a state anti-discrimination law with a reversed burden of proof, arguing it would weigh down police work with bureaucracy and place officers under blanket suspicion. Instead, the office of the commissioner for the state police is to have enough resources to handle citizens' complaints.

The FDP does not want a state law against discrimination. It says such a law would make police work harder. But people should be able to complain about the police. There is an office for that. This office should have enough money and staff.

The rejection targets a law under which the authority would have to prove in a dispute that it did not discriminate. In the FDP's view, this would cast general suspicion on police officers and create extra administrative work. For complaints about the police, the program points to the state's existing police commissioner. That office is to be adequately resourced.