SPD on public safety

The SPD wants crimes on the internet to be prosecuted just like crimes elsewhere, using constitutionally sound tools such as the "login trap." More cyber investigators are to solve cases and have illegal content removed.

The SPD wants to go after online crime more effectively. There should be more investigators for the internet. Illegal content should be deleted. The methods must fit the constitution.

With the login trap, a suspect is identified only at the next login, instead of storing all users' data in advance. The party also wants a basic review of the state of public IT systems. The state's capacity to monitor cyber risks and respond quickly to attacks is to grow permanently in law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The SPD wants to modernize police technology, create additional positions and renovate police buildings with a 300 million euro program. Against crime on the internet it plans a training drive and more IT specialists.

The SPD wants to equip the police better. Every workplace is to get mobile devices. There are to be more positions. 300 million euros are planned to renovate police buildings. The police should also solve internet crime better.

Plans include new analysis and evaluation software, mobile devices at every workplace, service cell phones for all and remote work. Additional positions for officers, administration and non-civil-servant staff, plus a program to free officers from other tasks, are meant to relieve front-line police. New helicopters, a coastal boat and patrol cars are to improve operational readiness. For digital investigations the SPD wants to buy hardware for a digital evidence store, use artificial intelligence and provide better tools for analyzing digital traces.

The SPD wants to make fighting sexual violence a priority of police work and commit more staff, technology and money to it. It points to rapidly rising case numbers and data volumes in child abuse and child pornography.

The police should do more against sexual violence. They should get more staff, technology and money for this. Computer programs should help sort through data. Investigators in this field should get extra pay and support.

The technical and legal basis for using artificial intelligence in data analysis is to be created to ease the burden on the police. Investigators working on child pornography cases are to receive a hardship allowance of up to 300 euros a month. Psychosocial support must be offered to them.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence and improve police procedures for doing so. It wants to press the federal government to amend the criminal code so that femicides are punished more severely.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. The police should step in more effectively. Femicide should be punished more harshly. Femicide means killing a woman because she is a woman.

The program cites the yearly rise in violent crimes against women, especially femicides, as the reason. Existing police approaches to action and intervention are to be improved. The tougher penalties are to be achieved through an initiative directed at the federal government, since the criminal code is federal law.

The SPD wants to raise the pressure on organized crime and consistently confiscate illegally acquired assets. Police are to cooperate more closely across borders, and Europol is to get considerably more resources and powers.

The SPD wants to act harder against organized gangs. The state should take away money they earned illegally. The police should work more closely with other states and countries. Europol, the European police agency, should get more resources.

The closer cooperation is justified by crime becoming more international and complex. Against criminal clans as part of organized crime, the SPD wants to continue acting at a low threshold and with every means the rule of law allows. It will politically support the expansion of Europol.

The SPD wants to make police service more attractive through faster promotions, higher allowances and a police allowance that again counts toward pensions. The background is that, by its account, more than 4,000 hires are needed in five years to offset retirements.

The police need many new people. So the SPD wants to make the job more attractive. Officers should be promoted faster and get higher allowances. More people with immigrant backgrounds should join the police.

Lower Saxony is to keep pace with neighboring states on pay, career development and allowances. The special retirement age for police officers in the civil service law is to stay unchanged. Care after on-duty accidents is to be modernized, and a working group on strains is to be set up with unions and staff councils. The initiative "Polizeischutz für die Demokratie" (police protection for democracy) is to run permanently with more staff, and intercultural skills are to grow. The SPD wants to act consistently against violence toward police and rescue workers.

The SPD wants to revise the fire protection law early in the term and equip fire departments and disaster response better. As a lesson from the 2021 floods, special vehicles and pumps are to be bought and a statewide siren network rebuilt.

The SPD wants a new fire protection law. Fire departments and helpers should get better equipment. This includes vehicles for floods and strong pumps. There should be sirens everywhere again. Volunteer helpers should get more recognition.

Plans include lasting funding for technical and digital equipment, stronger fire protection across local boundaries, better rights to time off work and help for financially weak municipalities. The training center in Celle-Scheuen is to be expanded further. For professional firefighters, pay and the firefighter allowance are to rise, and the allowance is to count toward pensions again. Helpers in recognized aid organizations are to get the same time-off rights as volunteer fire departments, and a recognition system is to strengthen volunteering. A change in procurement law is to allow crisis-preparedness goods to be bought preferentially in Lower Saxony.

The SPD wants to expand central units and specialized prosecutors' offices for clan crime, internet crime, and economic and tax offenses. Crimes committed online are to be prosecuted just like offline crimes.

Some prosecutors work only on certain crimes. Examples are internet crime and tax fraud. The SPD wants more of these expert units. Crimes on the internet should be punished too.

The platform plans to enlarge the existing central units and specialized prosecutors' offices and to create additional structures. Highly specialized staff are to handle these areas of crime and be formally linked with other state bodies. To speed up data analysis, the SPD plans good IT equipment and the supporting use of artificial intelligence. Law enforcement in messenger services, social networks and digital media is also to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to expand the state's crime prevention programs and give more weight to the victims' perspective in criminal proceedings. The platform argues that investigations and trials have so far been strongly focused on offenders.

The SPD wants to do more to prevent crime. There should be more programs for this. Crime victims should get more rights and more help. They should face less stress in court.

The programs at the state prevention council, for example on sexualized violence against children, antisemitism, right-wing radicalism and hate against officeholders, are to be expanded and given new focus areas. The SPD also wants to strengthen the state program for democracy and human rights. Psychosocial support during trials, victim-offender mediation and victim assistance are to be expanded, better linked and made easier to access. Dedicated contact persons and more video testimony are meant to ease the burden on victims in court.

The SPD wants to equip the prison system with more staff, renovated and new prison places, and digital technology. At the same time, programs for the rehabilitation of prisoners are to grow.

The SPD wants to improve prisons. There should be enough staff. Prisons should be renovated and new ones built. Prisoners should get more help to live without crime later.

Together with unions and associations, a system for calculating staffing needs is to be developed, similar to the PEBB§Y system used in the courts. Shift workers are to be treated equally with other groups, along with better working conditions and more training. Artificial intelligence is meant to help prevent suicides and detect dangers faster. Files are to be kept digitally to ease exchange with courts and probation services. To address the doctor shortage, the platform relies on telemedicine, cooperation with clinics and scholarships. Additional programs against extremism and radicalization in prison are also planned.

The SPD wants to fund the support centers for offenders permanently and strengthen probation services. Default imprisonment, meaning jail for unpaid fines, should in the future be eligible for suspension on probation.

Some people cannot pay a fine. Then they must go to prison. The SPD wants to avoid this more often. Help centers for offenders should get lasting funding.

According to the platform, the support centers help with reintegration and prevent default imprisonment through their money management service, which relieves the prison system. Their funding is to be secured permanently and adequately. In the probation service of the outpatient judicial social service, documentation duties are to be reduced so more time is left for social work. Standards are to be revised and the current risk-based approach developed into a holistic one.

The SPD wants to strengthen and expand the Häuser des Jugendrechts (juvenile justice centers), where state and municipal agencies work together against youth crime. In cases of school refusal, courts and youth welfare services are to cooperate earlier.

In juvenile justice centers, several offices work together. They deal with young people who commit crimes. The SPD wants more of these centers. When children skip school, someone should step in faster.

In the juvenile justice centers, several authorities coordinate their work against youth crime. This structure is to be strengthened and extended. Against school refusal, the SPD plans better and earlier coordination statewide between courts and youth welfare services so that intervention happens quickly.

The SPD wants to revise Lower Saxony's law on forensic psychiatric detention (Maßregelvollzug). The aim is for mentally ill offenders to receive a placement as quickly as possible.

Some offenders are mentally ill. They go to a special clinic instead of prison. The SPD wants to change the law on this. The people affected should get a place faster.

Maßregelvollzug is the placement of mentally ill or addicted offenders in secure clinics. The platform announces an amendment to the state law. The goal is to make placements available quickly.