Grüne on public safety

The Greens call for an immediate halt to biometric surveillance in public spaces and reject cooperation with companies such as Palantir. Surveillance measures are to be independently reviewed and must prove their benefit. In the party's view, more surveillance does not automatically bring more security and puts freedom at risk.

The Greens do not want face recognition in streets and squares. They do not want to work with companies like Palantir. Experts should check whether surveillance really helps. Instead of more technology, there should be more prevention and more people on site.

The moratorium is to apply immediately. Existing and planned surveillance measures are to be evaluated independently and openly, with the security gain demonstrated in a verifiable way. New technology is to be used only if it is proven to increase security. An overall surveillance audit is to assess all measures together so that intrusions on fundamental rights stay proportionate. Instead of digital surveillance, the platform relies on prevention and presence on the ground.

The Greens want to achieve safety mainly through social prevention in municipalities and provide more money for it. Part of it would come from surveillance spending the platform considers ineffective. Police would also be more visible and approachable in everyday life.

The Greens want to stop problems early. There would be more money for youth clubs and counseling. Some money for surveillance would go there instead. Police officers would walk through neighborhoods more often. They would talk with the people who live there.

According to the platform, safety comes from prevention, trust and working social structures rather than additional surveillance. Municipal services such as youth clubs, street outreach work, addiction counseling and psychological support would receive targeted funding. Part of the money would come from redirecting surveillance spending the Greens rate as ineffective. In addition, a Scandinavian-style community police would be strengthened, with foot patrols in neighborhoods and direct dialogue with residents.

The Greens want to add staff to the state police, reform training and align the police law more closely with fundamental rights. Remote searches of devices and interception of encrypted communication would be dropped. An independent complaints office is meant to raise trust in the police.

The Greens want to hire more police officers. Training should get better. A new police law should protect basic rights more strongly. Police should no longer secretly search computers and phones. There should be an independent office for complaints.

The plan includes enough new hires and training with more civic education, better preparation for encounters with people in mental health crises and more support for officers under strain. The police law would set high bars for serious intrusions on fundamental rights, guard against racial profiling and require body cameras whenever physical force is threatened or used. Remote device searches and source telecommunications interception would be given up. An independent police commissioner would be open to officers and the public alike. A long-term study responding to far-right incidents in the state police and a regular security report that also shows group-based hate crime are added.

The Greens want stronger protection for the right to demonstrate and more accountability for police action. Sit-in blockades would count as legitimate protest, filming without cause would end, and the ID requirement for officers would apply everywhere.

The Greens want to protect peaceful protests better. Sit-in blockades should no longer count as a crime. Police should not film protests without a reason. All officers on duty should wear a number. That way people can identify them later.

The platform justifies these demands by saying officers have repeatedly restricted fundamental rights at demonstrations. Numeric identification would apply to every type of deployment and to all officers involved. Sit-in blockades would be recognized as passive resistance and no longer recorded as a crime. Climate movement protests would not be criminalized. Police would stop filming participants without a specific reason.

The Greens want prisons to focus more on reintegration. Inmates would be able to earn qualifications and be paid appropriately for work, and open prisons would be the norm. In the platform's view, failed rehabilitation endangers everyone's safety.

Prisoners should get a fresh start after release. They should be able to learn a trade or study in prison. They should get fair pay for their work. More prisoners should go to open prisons. Those have fewer walls and more freedoms.

Vocational qualifications and full degree programs would become easier to complete in prison, and work would be paid appropriately. Suitable inmates would more often live in residential groups, with binding rules planned for this. Open prisons would be the standard form as long as there is no risk of escape or abuse. Placement in specially secured cells would be monitored more closely. Inmates with psychiatric illness could be treated in clinics outside the prison system.

The Greens want stricter independent oversight and more transparency for the state's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency). Serious intrusions would require prior review by courts. An independent research center on democracy would study anti-democratic developments.

The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence service. The Greens want to control it more strictly. A judge should approve serious measures in advance. There should be clear rules for informants. Informants are insiders who pass on information from extremist groups. A new research center should study threats to democracy.

The platform points to past scandals and a lack of democratic oversight at the agency. Measures that intrude especially deeply on rights would need a judge's approval beforehand. The use of informants would be regulated so that state resources do not benefit extremist groups. The planned research center would analyze efforts directed against democracy, publish its findings and offer educational programs. Its work would also give the agency a scientific basis for its tasks.

The Greens want to use every means available under the rule of law to counter the spread and radicalization of the far-right scene. At the same time, support services for people affected by violence and threats are to be expanded and civic education strengthened.

The Greens want to act against far-right extremism. Police and other agencies should find far-right groups faster and break them up. Victims of violence should get more help. People should learn more about democracy.

Security agencies are to be equipped to detect far-right groups earlier, examine them thoroughly, and dissolve them. Counseling and support services for people who have been threatened or attacked are to grow. The support network for victims of sexual and domestic violence is to receive adequate funding. The Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) is to be given a statutory basis, and the regional centers for democracy are to be strengthened. Civic education is to become a fixed part of teacher and educator training.

The Greens want to make Mecklenburg-Vorpommern more resilient to crises, sabotage and hybrid threats. Cooperation with Baltic Sea neighbors is to grow, and a state resilience concept as well as municipal resilience plans anchored in law are to be created. The energy supply is also to become more independent.

The Greens want to prepare the state better for crises. The state should work more closely with countries around the Baltic Sea. Important facilities like power lines should get better protection. Every town should have a plan for crises. Schools should teach about disaster protection.

The program points out that critical infrastructure such as the energy supply is coming under pressure from crises and sabotage. It plans a protection concept for such facilities on land and at sea, with a particular focus on civil-military cooperation. A state resilience concept is to combine ecological, social, economic and security issues, and municipal resilience plans are to be laid down in law. More renewable energy and a further developed European power grid are meant to strengthen energy sovereignty. Disaster and civil protection is to be taught in schools, universities and adult education, combined with cooperation with the THW (federal technical relief agency) and fire services. The party also wants to improve defenses against disinformation.