Grüne on public safety

The Greens want people to be able to move around anywhere in the state at any time without fear. Cem Özdemir announces tough measures if necessary and relies on the rule of law and community-oriented policing.

The Greens want more safety in the state. Everyone should be able to move around without fear. This applies by day and by night. Cem Özdemir wants to act firmly if needed. The police should be close to the people.

The platform names train stations and parks, big cities and villages as places where safety must be ensured. Offenders are to get no leniency, including none based on their cultural background. Özdemir considers anyone who attacks the free way of life an opponent, regardless of origin. The platform cites the Basic Law (Germany's constitution) and the criminal code as the standard.

The Greens want to better protect critical infrastructure against sabotage, espionage and digital attacks and remove untrustworthy components from it. Security agencies are also to keep watch on Islamist radicalization without placing Muslims under general suspicion.

Power, water and networks should be better protected. Unsafe technology should be removed there. Authorities should also watch Islamists. Muslims in general should not be treated as suspects.

Sabotage, espionage, disinformation and attacks on infrastructure are to be detected early and stopped; this requires security agencies that are well equipped and staffed. Protecting critical infrastructure is seen as one part of an overall strategy. On Islamism, authorities are to monitor radicalization paths and recruitment strategies and counter them together with civil society. The platform stresses that the great majority of Muslims are a natural part of democratic society.

The Greens want additional staff in the police and justice system and specialized prosecutors' offices to fight organized crime more effectively. Financial investigations into drug crime, serious tax fraud and money laundering are to be stepped up.

The Greens want more staff for police and courts. Special prosecutors should deal with crime gangs. Investigators should follow criminals' money more closely. Experts in computers and finance should help.

As examples of serious tax fraud the platform names cum-ex and cum-cum deals. Lateral entry is to be made easier in order to recruit experts from the IT sector and finance. The platform also seeks a civil-society-run monitoring center for organized crime. Municipalities are to get help with security plans for events.

The Greens want to respond to rising youth crime mainly with prevention, youth welfare services and early intervention. They reject lowering the age of criminal responsibility and consider closed imprisonment unsuitable for young people.

More young people are committing crimes. The Greens mainly want to prevent this. Education should matter more than punishment. Children under 14 should still not be punished by courts.

As prevention the platform names social policy, equal opportunity in education, more youth welfare services, and open and mobile youth work. The Häuser des Jugendrechts (joint youth justice centers) are to be rolled out more widely. Places in secure youth welfare facilities and in youth forensic psychiatry are to increase. Where youth custody is unavoidable, it is to take place in residential groups with enough staff.

The Greens want to keep investing in police staffing, structure and equipment and relieve officers of office work. The police allowance is to rise to at least 228 euros a month, and the two-tier career structure is to be fully introduced.

The police should get more staff and good equipment. Officers should have less office work. They should get a higher allowance: at least 228 euros a month. Moving up in the job should become easier.

Operations and investigation assistants are to support uniformed and criminal police, and a rotation system is to protect staff in heavily burdened precincts. In crime hot spots the platform relies on neighborhood management. Flexible working hours and health management are to make the job more attractive; entry is to remain possible with an intermediate school certificate. The new building for the state criminal police office, including its forensic institute, is to be completed quickly. The platform also addresses the volunteer police service.

The Greens want police misconduct to be fully investigated. The independent citizens' and police commissioner is to get more powers, and the police are to be committed to a values-based culture.

Police mistakes should be cleared up. There is an independent commissioner for this. That person should get more rights, such as reading files. The police should be as diverse as the state.

Oversight of police and administration is to become more independent in criminal investigations as well. The recommendations of the inquiry committee on the police inspector and promotion practices and of the staff unit for leadership and values culture are to be implemented. An independent research institution is to study the extent of sexual violence in state agencies. The police are to reflect the diversity of the population, including in leadership roles.

The Greens want security agencies to become less dependent on non-European IT providers. By 2030 at the latest, a research and analysis platform from European companies is to be available for the agencies to switch to.

Police and other security agencies use software to analyze data. In the future this software should come from Europe. Such a program should be ready by 2030. Companies from Baden-Württemberg should help.

The platform justifies the step with the geopolitical situation, which it says calls for more European self-reliance. A European development tender is named as one possible route. The platform is to work across different procedures and draw on expertise from Baden-Württemberg.

The Greens want to end the Freiwilliger Polizeidienst (volunteer police service) in Baden-Württemberg. The platform calls the model outdated because police work has become more demanding and complex.

In the volunteer police service, citizens help the police. The Greens want to end this service. They say police work is very hard today. It needs fully trained officers.

The platform justifies the step with the increased demands of police work. Instead, the focus is to be on putting more fully trained officers on patrol. The platform explicitly acknowledges the contribution of the volunteers so far.

The Greens want a prison system that prevents reoffending and prepares inmates for a life without crime. To that end, alternatives to imprisonment and open forms of custody are to be strengthened.

The Greens want to change the prison system. Prisoners should learn to live without crime. Some people should get house arrest instead of prison. An electronic device watches them. Prisons should also have enough staff.

Instead of Ersatzfreiheitsstrafen (jail time imposed for unpaid fines), the platform names electronically monitored house arrest as an option. Open prisons, avoidance of custody and residential-group custody are to be expanded. Prisons are to have enough well-trained staff and good working conditions. Modern building standards are to combine security, humane conditions for inmates and the needs of employees.

The Greens want to keep taking weapons away from extremists. At the federal level, they want a stricter weapons law so that enemies of the constitution never receive a permit in the first place.

Extremists should not have weapons. The Greens want to keep taking their weapons away. The German weapons law should become stricter. Enemies of the constitution should not get a weapons permit.

The ongoing disarmament of extremists in the state is to continue. Tightening the weapons law is a federal matter; the Greens want to push for it there. The aim is that people considered hostile to the constitution do not obtain a weapons permit.

The Greens want to expand protection of the civilian population, citing the changed security situation. Shelters and critical infrastructure are to be modernized, responsibilities pooled and volunteers given better standing.

The Greens want to protect people better from disasters. Shelters should be modernized. A new authority should plan for crises and handle them. Volunteer helpers should get equal rights. They should also get discounts.

Where needed, additional shelter capacity is to be created. The offices responsible for large-scale emergencies are to be merged into a civil protection headquarters, following a recommendation of the "Krisenfeste Gesellschaft" inquiry commission. The disaster-preparedness day in sixth grade is to be improved. All helpers are to be treated equally regardless of their organization. First-responder systems are to be standardized and funded; modern equipment and the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) are meant to make volunteering more attractive.