SPD on public safety

The SPD wants to raise the staffing targets for the police to 3,100 full-time positions in Bremen and 580 in Bremerhaven. The public order service is to have 120 full-time positions. The program argues that feeling safe is part of living in a good neighborhood.

The SPD wants more police officers. Bremen should have 3,100 full-time positions. Bremerhaven should have 580. The public order service should get 120 positions. It should act against litter and run-down buildings.

For the police, the program names 3,100 full-time positions in Bremen and 580 in Bremerhaven as new targets. The public order service is to use 120 full-time positions to tackle littering and derelict properties. The SPD also wants to keep fighting illegal gambling.

Together with the Beiräte (district councils), the SPD wants to identify places where people feel unsafe and upgrade them. Awareness teams at busy locations are to be deployed and funded permanently.

In some places in the city, people feel afraid. The SPD wants to find these places and make them nicer. Awareness teams should help at busy places. These are trained people who watch out and support others. The SPD wants to pay for these teams permanently.

In addition to the presence of enforcement officers, the SPD wants to invest in the quality of urban public spaces. The goal is a greater sense of safety. The professional awareness teams are to watch out and help at busy locations.

The SPD wants to respond to the drug scene around Bremen's main station with more enforcement officers, more social and medical services and more frequent cleaning. To prevent an uncontrolled shift into neighboring areas, it supports creating a designated tolerated location (Akzeptanzort).

There is a drug scene at Bremen's main station. The SPD says people with addiction need help. There will be more help and more doctors. But there will also be more enforcement officers. The scene should get its own place where it is tolerated.

The platform calls drug addiction a serious illness but also names drug dealing, drug-related crime and neglect of the surroundings as effects of the scene. Against this, the SPD relies on what it calls robust public-order law within the security partnership for the main station, working with the health sector. Public space should not be avoided by large parts of the population. Sick people in police custody are to receive medical care in special emergency clinics and a central detention facility.

The SPD wants to expand the Institute for Police and Security Research with additional funding and set up an innovation center for security agencies. The Hochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung (college of public administration) is to be placed under the interior department and made more capable.

The SPD wants more research on security. A research institute for the police should get more money. A new center should bring new technology to the police quickly. The college that trains police officers should belong to the interior department.

Research is to cover innovation, criminology and societal security. The innovation center is meant to bring new developments in the security field into practice early. The platform justifies moving the college to the interior department by noting that it trains almost exclusively police recruits.

The SPD wants more uniformed officers on the street, including 120 secured positions for neighborhood contact officers in the medium term. Municipal inspections are to be concentrated at the Ordnungsamt (public order office), and the enforcement service is to get bodycams.

The SPD wants more police on the street. There should be 120 jobs for neighborhood contact officers. The public order office should handle many inspections on its own. The enforcement service should wear bodycams. These are small cameras on clothing. The SPD does not tolerate violence against emergency workers.

In the future, the public order office is to inspect not only weapons storage and sports betting shops but also prostitution venues, gambling halls, shisha bars and so-called derelict properties. According to the platform, the number of contact officer positions depends on the overall police staffing target. After attacks on employees, the SPD wants to review the employer's duty of care and remove any disadvantages found. All patrol vehicles are to get mobile computers so that matters can be handled on the spot.

The SPD wants to make tasers available to all operational police units in Bremen and Bremerhaven. It also plans to amend the police law to broaden officers' powers of intervention. The platform justifies this with rising violence against emergency personnel.

The SPD wants more tasers for the police. A taser is a gun that gives electric shocks. All officers on duty should be able to use one. The police should also get more powers. The SPD says attacks on officers are increasing.

The platform points to experience in Bremerhaven and other states and expects tasers to deter and de-escalate. The Bremen police law is to get broader powers of intervention and clearer rules on which equipment officers may use. The police and fire service commissioner would also become responsible for the Bremerhaven fire department and the public order service. Aftercare following traumatic operations is to be expanded, as are the police prevention centers. For police deployments at high-risk soccer matches, the SPD seeks a nationwide rule, preferably through a fund.

The SPD wants to implement the new fire protection requirements plan and invest in equipment and vehicles for the fire departments. The volunteer fire departments are to be reorganized under a structural plan and get up-to-date stations in every district.

The SPD wants to equip the fire service better. There should be new vehicles and new technology. Volunteer fire departments should also get modern buildings. Money for this should be provided every year.

The structural plan for the volunteer fire departments is to be carried out quickly together with the state fire service association. In Burglesum, three volunteer units would merge into one main station, and a branch of the fire service school is being considered there. Funds for new vehicles would be provided every year, including through leasing. For police and fire vehicles the SPD also relies on alternative drive systems and is considering synthetic fuels for heavy vehicles. The number of e-bikes for police patrols is to double.

The SPD wants to realign disaster protection in the state of Bremen and equip it better. It cites the pandemic, the war against Ukraine and so-called hybrid threats as reasons. The rescue service is to be organized as a special fund.

The SPD wants better protection in disasters. There should be more sirens in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Helpers should get good training. The rescue service should be reorganized. The SPD gives the pandemic and the war in Ukraine as reasons.

The siren network in Bremen and Bremerhaven is to be expanded, and an investment plan is meant to strengthen civil protection overall. Fire, police and disaster services would use drones for reconnaissance, with a legal basis and data protection rules created for this. A joint control center for police and fire services is planned. At the federal level, the SPD advocates better pay scales and a shorter working life for emergency paramedics. Civil protection and volunteering would also be addressed in schools.

The SPD stands by the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic intelligence agency) and wants to equip it adequately. The platform sees right-wing extremism as the greatest danger to democracy. Extremism of every kind is to be met with firmness and with prevention.

The SPD wants to keep and strengthen the domestic intelligence agency. This agency watches enemies of democracy. The SPD sees right-wing extremists as the biggest danger. It wants to act firmly against all extremists. There should also be help for people to leave extremism.

The platform describes the state agency as an early-warning system and a fixed part of Bremen's security structure. The security allowance for its staff is to count toward their pensions. Cooperation with parliamentary oversight bodies and civil society is to remain transparent. A law on freedom of assembly should balance public safety, legal certainty for authorities and the rights of peaceful participants. Contact points for deradicalization are meant to work preventively.

The SPD wants to set up a separate cybercrime division within the State Criminal Police Office and expand cyber defense with additional positions. Police officers are also to be visibly present on social networks.

The SPD wants to do more against crime on the internet. The criminal police should get its own unit for this. Officers should also be reachable online. People should be able to report crimes more easily online or by phone.

Cyber defense is meant to protect critical infrastructure and the digital systems of the public sector. Online crime reporting will be expanded and linked with phone reporting in a call-center unit. In a pilot project, so-called cyber community officers would do prevention work online and counter false information. The SPD wants to create the legal basis needed for this.

The SPD wants to secure the ports better against drug trafficking and continue investigations into organized crime, including clan crime. One focus is on confiscating illegally acquired assets, including real estate and luxury goods.

The SPD wants to make the ports safer. Drugs should not come into the country through the ports. The police should keep investigating criminal gangs. The state should take money and houses away from criminals.

The authorities responsible for the ports are to cooperate more closely, as are police, courts and customs. Investigators should use every option, such as data from the encrypted services Encrochat and SkyECC. The SPD wants to make temporary asset-recovery positions permanent and enlarge evidence storage units. Oversight of notaries is to get more staff, following Berlin's example, to trace criminal assets in real estate. Human trafficking and sexual exploitation linked to organized crime are also to be targeted.

The SPD wants to act against offers that foster addiction and reorganize gambling supervision. It plans advertising bans for sports betting and stricter rules for gambling halls and their locations.

The SPD wants stricter rules for gambling. Ads for sports betting should be banned. Gambling halls should face tougher rules. The state should fight illegal gambling better. This is meant to keep people from becoming addicted.

The responsible government departments are to identify further areas for addiction prevention. Illegal gambling is to be pursued more effectively. The SPD also wants to fight money laundering in betting shops.

The SPD wants to use the federal government's announced legalization of cannabis to review procedures at the police, prosecutors and courts, and to step up prevention of drug abuse. It calls for higher fines for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The federal government wants to allow cannabis. The SPD then wants to do more against drug abuse. People who drive drunk or on drugs should pay higher fines. People who do it repeatedly should lose their license.

The demand for higher fines is directed at the federal level. Repeat offenders are to lose their driver's license and face consistent penalties. The relief the SPD expects for prosecutors from legalization is to improve their staffing ratio.

The SPD wants crime victims to get help quickly and without red tape and will keep funding victim support organizations. It wants to continue the fight against sexual violence toward children and young people with more prevention and better investigative technology.

The SPD wants to help crime victims better. Support groups should keep getting money. There should be more advice on compensation. The police should do more against sexual violence toward children. They will get modern software for this.

Counseling on the Victims Compensation Act is to be expanded so that those affected can reach benefits more easily. Investigations into child abuse would use modern software and be closely coordinated with the central office at the Federal Criminal Police Office. Bremen would take part in nationwide reporting and deletion procedures. Officers who handle such cases are to get special arrangements because of the heavy strain. Dedicated prevention programs will be strengthened.

The SPD wants to continue the complete renovation of Bremen's prison (JVA), under way since 2007. According to the platform, this is the only way to improve the condition of the buildings for inmates and staff and to secure a prison system geared toward rehabilitation.

The SPD wants to keep renovating the prison in Bremen. The buildings are very old. They date from 1874. The work will take about ten more years. The prison should also produce its own power from sun and wind.

The cell blocks were built in 1874; the prison's school and workshops are also affected. If work proceeds on schedule, the platform expects another decade of construction. In addition, the prison is to invest in its own solar and wind power and convert its vehicle fleet to contribute to climate targets.

The SPD wants to make a staffing level of 260 in the general prison service binding and train recruits to reach it. It also wants to bring prison officers' civil-service status closer to that of police, firefighters and customs. The platform cites rising inmate numbers and the goal of rehabilitation.

The SPD wants more staff in the prison. 260 people should work in the prison service. The SPD wants to train new people for this. The job should also get more recognition. The SPD says there are more inmates and many have mental health problems.

According to the platform, the contact-officer model, in which every inmate has a designated officer, depends on sufficient staffing. The prison service is to be recognized in state law as an authority with security duties. The prison service allowance would count toward pensions. Inclusion in Freie Heilfürsorge (employer-funded health care for certain officers) is to be examined. Career tracks are also to become more permeable.

The SPD wants to keep literacy and German courses for prisoners and give them access to digital media in the future. It points to the legal mandate to prepare inmates for a life without crime.

Prisoners should be able to learn in prison. Courses in reading, writing and German should continue. Prisoners should also be able to use the internet. This should help them later in life outside.

According to the platform, many inmates first need basic courses before they can take part in further training. Life in custody has so far been largely offline, while dealing with authorities and searching for housing and jobs increasingly happen online outside. The SPD cites good experience with video calls during the pandemic. The platform describes the justice system's social services and independent providers as indispensable for rehabilitation and avoiding imprisonment.

The SPD wants to avoid imprisonment for unpaid fines as far as possible. At the federal level, it wants riding without a ticket to be neither a crime nor an administrative offense. In the platform's view, this kind of detention mostly hits people without means, has no effect and causes high costs.

Some people cannot pay a fine. Then they have to go to prison. The SPD wants to prevent that where possible. Riding without a ticket should no longer be a crime. An app should remind people of appointments and payments.

According to the platform, an average of 50 prison places are occupied by people serving time for unpaid fines, costing more than 2.3 million euros a year at about 130 euros per day; roughly a fifth of cases involve fare evasion. The justice system's social services would get a "probation app" modeled on Northern Ireland. Contact with support services such as debt counseling, doctors or street workers would be credited against outstanding daily fine units; with lasting use, the fine could be treated as paid off. The justice and social affairs departments are to develop joint support programs.

The SPD wants to actively use the cross-departmental "Aktionsplan Hauptbahnhof" (central station action plan) so that the station, in its view, again becomes a good place for everyone. Spaces near the station are to be created for the groups that gather there.

Many groups meet at the central station. Some people feel disturbed there. The SPD wants to weigh everyone's interests. It uses the central station action plan for that. Nearby there should be places where people can stay.

The platform describes the situation at the central station as a particular challenge. It says a balance must be struck between the right to choose freely where to be and other users' wish for an undisturbed stay. Dialogue between the differing interests is to continue. The action plan brings together several Senate departments.

The SPD wants to involve people in Bremen and Bremerhaven in the medium-term strategic direction of the police. They should be able to say what they expect of the police. At the same time, the aim is to build more understanding for security work.

People in Bremen should have a say about the police. They should say what they expect of the police. The SPD wants to set up a process for this. District councils and citizens' forums should work together on it.

Past citizens' forums and citizen surveys are to be evaluated. Building on that, a first participation process on the strategic direction of the police is to be set up. Findings from current academic studies on everyday police work are to be included. District councils and citizens' forums are to be brought together for this purpose.