SPD on public safety

The SPD wants to consistently enforce shared rules in the city and fight organized crime. It plans to invest in the police and fire service and to strengthen the public prosecutor's office.

The SPD wants Hamburg to stay safe. It wants to spend more on police and firefighters. The prosecutor's office should get stronger too. The SPD wants to fight organized crime.

According to the program, breaking agreed rules should have clear consequences. Public spaces should belong to everyone and allow people to live together well. Safety is to extend from the port to every neighborhood. The SPD argues that respect and community only work if everyone follows common rules.

The SPD wants to add 500 more police positions over the next five years. This comes with a higher police allowance, investment in IT and buildings, and a new police academy.

The SPD wants to hire more police officers. Over five years, 500 positions should be added. Officers should get a higher allowance. The police should get modern technology and a new academy.

The police allowance is to rise to 180 euros a month in 2025/2026. The investment program for modern IT and police infrastructure continues; a new operations center in Alsterdorf is meant to improve accessibility. In the neighborhoods, police are to become more visible and approachable and deal more with everyday rule violations and minor offenses. To this end, the SPD also wants to increase the number of civilian police employees under the "local presence" concept and deepen partnerships with local actors.

The SPD relies on video surveillance, more weapon-free zones and stepped-up checks, especially at events. People are to feel safe at all times in public spaces and on public transit.

The SPD wants more cameras in public places. Weapons should be banned in more areas. Police should check more there. A new app should make emergency calls faster.

The program cites the package of measures at the main station as a model: more presence, a weapons ban, an alcohol consumption ban and video surveillance. Joint patrols by state police, federal police, railway security and the transit company's guards are described as a success. A new emergency call app is to transmit the caller's location automatically so police arrive faster. Checks are to be stepped up mainly at events.

The SPD wants to increase investigative pressure on organized crime and invest in security technology in the port. Money laundering is to be fought harder, criminal assets seized, and clan structures prevented from forming.

Illegal drugs reach Hamburg through the port. The SPD wants to investigate the gangs behind this more. The port should get more security technology. The state should seize money from crime.

The program points to the "Alliance for a Safe Port of Hamburg" and the port security center, where the state criminal police, water police, customs and the port authority work together. With Rotterdam and Antwerp, the SPD wants to develop Europe-wide standards for port security. Together with customs, more technology is to be used to detect and seize illegal imports. Criminal clan structures are to be kept from taking hold in Hamburg at all.

The SPD wants to add 300 more firefighters, raise their allowance and build new stations. Disaster protection is to improve through a new department and a crisis-proof communications network.

The SPD wants to hire 300 more firefighters. The fire service should get new stations. Firefighters should get a higher allowance. Protection in disasters should also get better.

The firefighter allowance is to rise to 180 euros a month in two steps in 2025/2026. Two new fire and rescue stations are planned in Finkenwerder and Schnelsen, plus a new control center on Eiffestraße. Renovation of volunteer fire department buildings will continue. A digital situation and command system and a hardened disaster protection network with backup power are to secure communication in crises, including in 86 volunteer fire department buildings. A new department for crisis management and civil protection with 15 additional staff is working in the interior ministry.

The SPD wants to act against right-wing extremism, Islamism and other extremist movements and relies on prevention and deradicalization. The state domestic intelligence office (Verfassungsschutz) is to get more staff and technology, also against espionage, sabotage and cyberattacks.

The SPD wants to protect democracy from extremists. These include right-wing extremists and Islamists. The domestic intelligence office should get more staff. It should also fend off attacks on the internet. Children and young people should be better protected.

The program cites the competence network on right-wing extremism, in which agencies and institutions cooperate, and two special units against right-wing extremism and Islamism online. Cross-agency networks for prevention and deradicalization are to be strengthened, especially to protect young people. The SPD wants to act firmly against Islamist structures and points to the closure of the Islamic Center Hamburg. Once court proceedings end, the Blue Mosque is to become a place for worship and cultural exchange on the basis of the constitution.

The SPD wants the prison system to focus more on rehabilitation and to avoid jail terms for unpaid fines through prevention and community service. Secure psychiatric facilities for mentally ill offenders are to be expanded.

The SPD wants offenders not to commit new crimes after prison. People who cannot pay a fine should do community work rather than go to jail. Social workers should help early. There should be more places for mentally ill offenders.

The provisional housing of mentally ill offenders in the pretrial detention facility is to end as soon as possible. The SPD wants to implement the recommendations of the study on the rehabilitation law, for instance at Hamburg's youth detention facility. Outreach social work is to be expanded to prevent offending in the first place. Under the motto "Schwitzen statt Sitzen" (sweat instead of sitting), more community service options are to be created. The program calls rehabilitation the best form of victim protection.