Linke on public safety

The Left wants violent parents to automatically lose custody and visitation rights for at least six months. Police and the judiciary would get mandatory training, and restraining orders could be monitored digitally in high-risk cases.

The Left wants stricter action against violence in families. A violent parent should not see the children for at least six months. Police and courts should have to take training. In very risky cases, technology should check that a restraining order is obeyed.

Police, judges, and prosecutors would receive mandatory training so that they recognize domestic violence. People who have been violent would have to take part in anti-violence programs as a condition. Special units for such cases would be set up within the judiciary and the police. At the federal level, the party wants to push for faster suspension of visitation rights for violent parents or relatives. Authorities are to work more closely with NGOs.

The Left wants to gear police and courts toward cybercrime, white-collar crime and AI-driven manipulation. Specialized units are to be created and prosecutors' offices given more staff. For hate crime, there are to be dedicated contact officers within the police.

The Left wants to fight new kinds of crime better. These include attacks on the internet and business fraud. There should be special teams for this. Prosecutors should get more staff. Victims of hate should have a fixed contact person at the police.

The specialized units are to be technically up to date and able to uncover complex structures. Cybersecurity is meant to protect companies, public agencies and private individuals from digital attacks. Additional positions at prosecutors' offices, including those specializing in particular offenses, are planned for complex white-collar cases. Contact officers for hate crime are to work in every police authority and every county so that victims are taken seriously.

The Left wants to create an independent police complaints office with its own investigative powers. Citizens are to be involved in security policy questions, and the state parliament is to get stronger oversight rights. Security laws are to be reviewed regularly and repealed if they prove ineffective or violate fundamental rights.

The Left wants better oversight of the police. An independent office should look into complaints about the police. Citizens should have a say on security issues. The state parliament should get more oversight rights. Security laws should be checked regularly.

For participation, the program lists public hearings on new security laws, citizens' forums on local policing and accountability reports from all security agencies. The complaints office is to be adequately resourced so that complaints are actually handled. Relevant police statistics and situation reports are to be published. In the party's view, security comes less from surveillance and deterrence than from prospects, cohesion and participation.

The Left wants to create 500 additional police positions by 2030 to increase presence and closeness to residents. It also backs individual identification, body cameras when firearms or Tasers are used, and an independent reporting system for far-right incidents in the agencies. Officers' weekly working time is to be reducible to 38 hours.

The Left wants 500 new police jobs by 2030. Officers should have more time for people. They should wear an ID marking. A body camera should film automatically when shots are fired. Officers should work only 38 hours a week.

For shorter working hours, the party wants to press the federal government to reform civil service law. A prevention police force with specialized officers is to build lasting trust in schools, clubs and communities. Regular training on human rights and intercultural skills is planned. According to the program, identification and body cameras protect both the public and officers from false accusations. The party wants to address far-right incidents without blanket suspicion but with clear democratic standards.

The Left rejects facial recognition for mass surveillance and automated data analysis software such as Palantir for the police. Encryption is to be promoted rather than weakened, and people are to be told what data is stored about them and how to have it deleted. Artificial intelligence is to help solve cybercrime, not monitor uninvolved people.

The Left does not want mass surveillance. Cameras should not recognize faces on a mass scale. The police should not use software like Palantir. This software analyzes huge amounts of data automatically. People should know what data is stored about them.

The party treats the protection of digital privacy as a fundamental right. It wants to support encryption at state, federal and EU level. According to the program, AI can for example make it easier for investigators to screen depictions of sexualized violence against children. The police are to get working devices so that digital processes become more efficient without collecting data in bulk.

The Left considers the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) superfluous in its current form and wants it to reset its priorities. In the long run, an agency for democracy and human rights is to take its place. It would mainly strengthen democracy work and civic education.

The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence service. The Left thinks it is not needed in its current form. It wants no more secret informants. Later, an agency for democracy and human rights should replace it. That agency should strengthen civic education.

The party criticizes the use of V-Leute, meaning informants from within monitored groups, as opaque and rejects spying on people. According to the program, the planned agency is to work transparently. Its focus would be on promoting democratic engagement and education rather than on intelligence methods.

The Left wants to protect the constitution through education and public information rather than covert surveillance. Paid informants are to be phased out, following the example of Thuringia, and replaced by exit counseling.

The Left wants to protect the constitution in a different way. There should be more education, for example in schools. The state should stop using paid informants. Informants are people who secretly report from inside a group. Instead, there should be counseling for people who want to leave extremist groups.

The program calls for educational work in schools, adult education and municipalities on anti-constitutional tendencies and democratic values. Regular public reports are meant to build trust in democratic institutions while protecting sources. Thuringia is named as the model, where informants were systematically deactivated. Professional exit counseling is to take the place of paid informants. Schools, youth work and social work are to cooperate to spot radicalization early.

The Left wants to strengthen the relief agency and rescue services with modern equipment, more staff and regular training. Dispatch centers are to stay decentralized, and disaster-response training is to be expanded.

The Left wants to strengthen rescue services and the relief agency. They should get modern equipment and enough staff. Dispatch centers should stay in the region. A dispatch center takes emergency calls and sends help. There should be a new training ground.

Dispatch centers are to remain regionally based rather than centralized in distant agencies, which the program says do not know local conditions. A new training and operations site is to be built at the Institute for Fire and Disaster Protection in Heyrothsberge. For rare, life-threatening illnesses, the Left plans binding training standards and clear guidelines in rescue services. Emergency ID cards are to be recognized there on a mandatory basis.

The Left wants to reform, and in the long run scrap, the rule under which municipalities pay for official assistance during disasters. It argues that natural disasters are a task for society as a whole and that the costs must be shared in solidarity.

Sometimes towns need help from the army or the THW relief agency. This happens during floods or forest fires. Towns often have to pay a lot for this help. The Left wants to change that. Later, towns should pay nothing for it.

When municipalities request official assistance during floods, storm damage or forest fires, the program says they currently face high costs. The Left considers this unfair because the Bundeswehr and the THW are already funded by taxes. Spending on rescue and disaster response is to be borne by those with greater financial strength. Municipalities with tight budgets are to be relieved.

The Left wants to prepare the population better for crises and make coordination with operators of critical infrastructure public. Especially vulnerable facilities such as hospitals, schools and care homes are to receive targeted support.

The Left wants everyone to be ready for a crisis. There should be info events and free first-aid courses. Towns should have fixed places to go in an emergency. Companies for power, water and phones should make their emergency plans public. Hospitals, schools and care homes get special help.

The THW and the state are to explain at regional events how households can look after themselves for 72 hours. Free first-aid courses are to be funded, and so-called disaster-protection lighthouses, local contact points in residential areas, are to be expanded. The state is to coordinate regularly with energy, telecom and water operators and report publicly on this and on regional risks. The program demands redundant systems, backup power and regular drills from private operators. Schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly and for people with disabilities, and homeless shelters get staff training, evacuation plans and secured backup power.

The Left wants to fund fire departments through fixed, earmarked state allocations to municipalities instead of individual grant programs. A dedicated state program is meant to keep small rural fire departments from closing.

The Left wants to give fire departments steady money. The state should pay it to towns under clear rules. Towns decide for themselves what to buy. Small fire departments in rural areas get their own support program. No fire department should have to close.

A larger share of the fire protection tax is to go directly to municipalities, earmarked for this purpose. The state allocations are to be predictable over several years and may be saved up. Municipalities then decide themselves on vehicles, fire stations or protective clothing. The program "Kleine Wehren – Bestand sichern" (small fire departments – securing their future) is to fix shortfalls in parking bays, sanitary and changing rooms and basic vehicle equipment. The Left also plans binding statewide minimum standards for municipal fire protection and procurement that involves firefighters.

The Left wants to improve conditions for volunteer and career firefighters. This includes guaranteed time off from work, full wage replacement, more training places and counting years of service toward pensions.

The Left wants more people to join the fire department. Volunteers should get time off work for call-outs. They should keep their full pay. Time in the fire department should count toward their pension. After hard call-outs, there should always be mental health support.

Full wage replacement during deployments is also to apply to the self-employed, and expenses are to be reimbursed without much paperwork. Firefighting schools get more training places to avoid waiting lists. To recruit new members, the Left wants to strengthen youth fire brigades and attract more women and people with a migration background. Psychosocial support after stressful deployments is to become the norm.

The Left wants to prepare fire departments for forest fires, floods and heat waves as consequences of climate change. It plans investment in prevention and equipment and close links with other relief organizations.

Climate change brings more forest fires, floods and heat. The Left wants to prepare fire departments for this. There should be wells for firefighting water. Forest roads should be usable for fire trucks. Fire departments should work closely with other helpers.

The plans include wells for firefighting water, forest roads that emergency vehicles can use, specialized equipment and statewide wildfire preparedness. Fire departments are to be linked with disaster response units, the THW and municipal crisis teams so that resources are used effectively. The program ties this to the claim that slowing down climate protection puts emergency personnel at risk.

The Left treats investment in education, youth work and social services as crime policy, because in its view crime grows out of injustice and a lack of prospects. Rural areas are also to get mobile police and support services.

The Left wants to stop crime early. There should be more youth clubs and street social work. Victims of violence at home should find safe places. Rural areas should get mobile police stations and counseling. The Left says: People who can live well commit fewer crimes.

The plans include more street work, open youth clubs and youth centers, as well as programs against domestic violence with reliable shelters. For rural areas the program lists mobile police stations, regular office hours for residents, and local social work and family support. Mobile counseling on debt, addiction and family problems and mediation in neighbor disputes are meant to prevent escalation. Intercultural festivals, partnerships between city districts and villages, and cross-generational projects are to strengthen cohesion. The Left wants fundamental rights to be expanded.

The Left wants to create specialized prosecutor's offices for far-right crimes and for gender-based violence. It points to a record level of politically motivated crime in 2024 and to recurring deadly violence against women.

The Left wants to set up special prosecutor's offices. One kind deals with far-right crimes. Another deals with violence against women. A femicide is the killing of a woman because she is a woman. Such crimes should be prosecuted more strictly.

Far-right crimes are to be handled in a pooled way across regions. Court staff would get training on perpetrator structures, radicalization and networks, alongside cooperation with police, the domestic intelligence service and civil initiatives, better statistics including online, and prevention work. For gender-based violence, the program plans separate specialized prosecutors, training on domestic violence and cooperation with victim protection groups. Femicides are to be recognized and recorded systematically. Through the Bundesrat, the party wants femicide added as an aggravating element of murder in Section 211 of the Criminal Code.

The Left wants to initiate a criminal law reform at the federal level. Dumpster diving, riding without a ticket and abortion would no longer be crimes, while tougher rules would apply only to serious offenses. This is meant to relieve police and courts.

The Left wants to change criminal law. Riding without a ticket should no longer be a crime. Taking thrown-away food should also be allowed. Abortions should become legal. This gives police and courts less work.

The program names decriminalizing "Containern" (taking discarded food from bins) and ending criminal liability for riding public transit without a ticket. Abortions are to be legalized, which the party justifies with self-determination and bodily integrity. A reform of child access law is meant to better protect women and children from stalking, domestic violence and femicide. Tougher criminal provisions should come only where needed to prosecute serious crimes.

The Left wants to support people who have experienced violence faster and with less red tape. To that end, the state's victim support fund is to grow and the victim protection clinics are to be secured and expanded.

The Left wants to help victims of violence better. The state should give more money for quick help. Medical exams after a violent crime should be free. Victims' addresses should be better protected.

The Saxony-Anhalt victim support fund is to receive more money for short-term financial aid. Court-ordered payments from criminal cases are to help fund victim protection facilities. Examinations at victim protection clinics would be free and include documentation usable in court; the clinics in Halle and Magdeburg are to stay, grow and be supplemented where needed. Victim and witness data are to be anonymized more thoroughly, especially home addresses when filing a report. Prosecutor's offices would have fixed contact persons for domestic violence cases.

The Left wants to abolish Ersatzfreiheitsstrafen (jail time in place of unpaid fines) via the Bundesrat and expand community service instead. Prisons are to focus more on reintegration, which the program says reduces reoffending and thereby also protects victims.

Today, people who do not pay a fine often go to jail. The Left wants to end that. These people should do community work instead. Prisoners should get more pay and more help. This should keep them from committing new crimes.

The plans include better care, education and therapy in prison, professional transition management after release, and support for victim-offender mediation where victims agree. Prisoners are to be paid more and included in the pension system so they can pay off debts. Open prison is to become the standard form of custody. The party rejects privatization in the prison system, wants to tackle staff shortages there, and will critically monitor the new Weißenfels prison project. Forensic medicine institutes and forensic evidence collection are to be well equipped.

The Left wants juvenile criminal law to rely on prevention and education and to avoid confinement wherever possible. The aim is for young people to reoffend less often and integrate better into society.

The Left wants to lock up young people less often. They should learn and get support instead. The party rejects "warning shot" detention. That is a short detention on top of a suspended sentence. Schools should explain what is a crime.

The party rejects sanctions such as Warnschussarrest (short "warning shot" detention) as disproportionate. A pilot project called "custody in open forms" would place young offenders in supervised group homes. "Houses of Juvenile Justice" are to bring agencies together under one roof so they can respond quickly and offer a central point of contact. Campaigns in schools are planned to explain what conduct is punishable.