SPD on public safety

The SPD wants to create a state security council that coordinates security strategies across departments. A comprehensive strategy is to protect critical infrastructure and keep Berlin able to act in crises. Investment in disaster and civil protection is also planned.

The SPD wants a new body for security in Berlin. It is called the state security council. All responsible offices work together there. Berlin should protect power, water and heating better. The city should be able to spot dangers early.

The council is to follow the model of the National Security Council and also improve coordination with the federal government and other states. Investment is to go into technology, protective measures and decentralized supply; operators of critical infrastructure get support with prevention. The Berlin situation report is to become a real-time system for electricity, water and heating. The SPD also wants to strengthen criminological and security policy research in Berlin and says it puts prevention ahead of toughness.

The SPD wants to improve Berlin's disaster response and create a single crisis management system for the whole state. A law would define who is in charge during a crisis. Civil defense and protection against cyberattacks would also be strengthened.

The SPD wants Berlin to be better prepared for crises. All agencies should work with the same system. A law should say who decides in a crisis. Berlin should also be better protected against attacks from the internet.

Crisis teams would have permanent members and hold regular drills. Crisis information would also be offered in easy-to-read language and German Sign Language. Funding should be sufficient to handle several emergencies at once or long-lasting ones. On cybersecurity, the SPD wants closer European cooperation to protect critical infrastructure and research institutions against AI-supported attacks and disinformation.

The SPD wants to strengthen police and prosecutors in tackling white-collar and organized crime. Assets gained through crime would be confiscated. Hate crime and violence against women would also be pursued more vigorously.

The SPD wants to do more against crime. Police and prosecutors should act more strongly against money laundering and corruption. The state should take away money made from crime. The SPD also wants to fight gangs and hate crimes more.

The program names money laundering, tax evasion, undeclared work and corruption, as well as gang crime and cybercrime. Specialized investigation units at the police and prosecution service would be strengthened, for example against protection rackets, labor exploitation and forced prostitution. Victims would get better protection and counseling. For violence against women and anti-queer attacks, the SPD wants stronger counseling centers and higher clearance rates. Berlin is also to become a leading site for criminological research, including regular studies of unreported crime.

The SPD wants state interventions to remain proportionate. Checks without specific suspicion would be restricted, and weapon and knife ban zones should stay the exception. The party rejects software from vendors such as Palantir for Berlin.

The SPD wants to protect people's civil liberties. Police should check people without suspicion less often. Zones that ban knives and weapons should stay rare. Berlin should not use software from the company Palantir.

The ban on racial profiling would stay, and parliament would regularly review which places are classified as crime hot spots. The SPD wants to keep Berlin's de-escalation strategy at demonstrations and ensure the press can work there freely. Use of AI would be examined case by case and evaluated regularly, involving civil society and digital rights groups. For automated analysis of mass data, the party seeks a European solution. At the federal level it wants to strengthen the rights of the police and citizens' commissioner in criminal proceedings and widen the right of social workers to refuse testimony.

The SPD wants to renovate police and fire stations through a dedicated investment program and update equipment. Police would work more closely with neighborhoods and civil society and be more visible on patrol.

The SPD wants to repair police and fire service buildings. There should be a special funding program for this. Police should patrol more often on foot and by bike. They should work more closely with people in the neighborhood.

Foot and bicycle patrols would be expanded citywide, and security staff would be posted more often at subway and commuter rail stations. A pilot project for drones in initial reconnaissance and a digital "community policing" program for young people are planned. Police training would focus more on awareness of racism, anti-queer hostility and gender-based violence. To help people in mental health crises, police, social workers and social psychiatric services would be linked; the fire service's social-medical acute team would become permanent. Every child should meet police and firefighters at daycare or school at least once before graduating.

The SPD wants a violence prevention law that makes prevention binding and funds it permanently. Programs for nonviolent conflict resolution in neighborhoods would be supported.

The SPD wants to stop violence before it happens. There should be a special law for this. The law should secure the money for this work for the long term. Projects in neighborhoods should get support.

The focus is on gender-specific projects, for example against domestic violence, and on efforts against weapon and knife violence. The districts' prevention councils would get more staff. Violence against people with disabilities is to receive particular attention.

The SPD wants to gradually replace jail terms for unpaid fines with community work, arguing that such detention often hits poorer people. At the federal level it is pushing for riding without a ticket to no longer be a crime. Prisons should combine security with rehabilitation.

People who do not pay a fine often have to go to jail today. The SPD wants to change that. These people should do community work instead. Riding without a ticket should no longer be a crime.

An Ersatzfreiheitsstrafe is jail time for people who fail to pay a criminal fine. Training, work and victim-offender mediation in prison would be strengthened. Repeat serious offenders would stay in closed prisons, and radicalization behind bars is to be stopped.