SPD on public safety

The SPD puts strong emphasis on prevention in security policy. Programs against youth crime and extremism are to be expanded, local prevention councils strengthened, and dark places better lit.

The SPD wants to stop crimes before they happen. Programs against youth crime and extremism should grow. In cities, police, public offices and charities should work together more closely. Dark places should get more light.

Local crime prevention councils, which bring together police, youth and social services, social workers and welfare associations, are to be strengthened. A "Masterplan Licht" (lighting master plan) is meant to make dark spots such as train stations, parks and underpasses safer. State and federal police are to cooperate more closely with municipal public order offices, for example through local partnerships or joint patrols. The platform also counts social security, fair wages and good education and leisure options as prevention.

The SPD wants to act against right-wing extremism and unlawful violence within the police. To do so, it plans an independent complaints office and the post of a state police commissioner.

The SPD wants no right-wing extremists in the police. Unlawful violence by police officers should also have consequences. There should be an independent office for complaints. A commissioner should look into such cases. Police officers can turn to this person too.

The platform cites right-wing extremist chat groups and cases of racially motivated police violence in the state as the reason. The recommendations of the task force on right-wing extremist tendencies in the NRW police are to be implemented and checked continuously for effect. The state police commissioner is to investigate unlawful police violence and be a point of contact for those affected and for officers who notice misconduct among colleagues. A study is also to provide a situation report on right-wing extremism and racism.

The SPD wants to increase police staffing and raise police presence in neighborhoods. Officers are to be better equipped, especially digitally, and violence against emergency personnel is always to go to court.

The SPD wants to hire more police officers. The police should be easier to see in neighborhoods. They should get better technology. Anyone who attacks emergency workers should always be reported.

The platform justifies the staffing increase with many retirements, growing tasks, overtime and shortages, for example in the criminal investigation department. The neighborhood beat service (Bezirksdienst) is to be kept and expanded because it builds closeness to residents. Hiring is to reflect the diversity of society, and support measures are to lower the high dropout rate in police training. Cybercrime and digital investigation methods are to get more attention. Agency heads are to report all violent offenses against police, fire, public order and rescue personnel.

The SPD wants to base security policy more firmly on scientific findings. It plans a regular security report, an institute for security research and an independent expert advisory council.

The SPD wants to know more about crime. Many crimes are never reported. A regular report should give a clearer picture. A new institute should do research on security. Experts should advise the state parliament and the government.

The periodic security report is meant to shed light on unreported crime, because police statistics show only part of the picture, for example for organized crime, sexual offenses and domestic violence. The institute is to pool research findings and make them usable for policymakers and agencies. The interdisciplinary council is to advise parliament and government on all domestic policy questions and set long-term topics, similar to Germany's council of economic experts.

The SPD wants to devote more staff to prosecuting organized crime and target its money above all. Money laundering is to be fought with more inspections, and illegal assets consistently confiscated.

The SPD wants to act harder against organized criminals. Above all it wants to take away their money. For this there should be more checks and more tax investigators. Many public offices should work together. Environmental crimes should also be pursued more.

Besides police and prosecutors, tax offices, job centers, immigration authorities and youth and public order offices are to take part. Tax offices are to get enough tax investigators and analysts. A new task force in the state government is planned against environmental crime. The platform rejects blanket suspicion of any population group, wants to bring ringleaders to court and offer exit programs for family members. Against ATM bombings, it wants closer work with Dutch police and with banks and savings banks on better security technology.

The SPD wants to make train stations safer and more attractive, saying many are perceived as places of fear. It plans station supervisors as a point of contact and permanent weapons-ban zones around major stations.

Many people feel unsafe at train stations. The SPD wants to change that. Stations should have supervisors who help passengers. Weapons should be banned for good around big stations.

The concept for station supervision is to be developed together with the federal government, Deutsche Bahn and the regional transit authorities. The supervisors are to be a point of contact for passengers and look after the condition of stations and stops. Federal and state police, the railway's security service, municipal public order services and social workers are to cooperate more closely.

The SPD wants to step up the fight against political and religious extremism and strengthen the police and the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) for that purpose. The platform sees right-wing extremism as the greatest current threat to democracy. Extremists are to be barred from owning weapons.

The SPD wants to do more against extremists. Extremists reject democracy. The police and the domestic intelligence service should become stronger. Extremists should not be allowed to have weapons. The SPD sees the biggest danger in right-wing extremists.

Under the platform, anyone who belongs to an extremist network must lose their weapons license, backed by stricter monitoring. Outstanding arrest warrants against right-wing extremists are to be enforced as quickly as possible and analyzed promptly. Investigations of right-wing extremist offenders are to be pooled, and the SPD will examine giving more responsibilities to the central counter-terrorism prosecution unit at the Düsseldorf public prosecutor general's office. The party will not tolerate hostile attitudes toward groups of people inside state institutions, and those who report such cases are to receive special protection. Public authorities are to be made more alert to right-wing extremist attitudes and acts.

The SPD wants to fight hate crime and the spread of hateful slogans much harder, especially online. Security agencies are to get more staff and platform operators are to be held more accountable. The platform argues that incitement is often the first step toward physical violence.

The SPD wants to do more against hate on the internet. The police and the domestic intelligence service should get more staff. Companies like Facebook or YouTube should also do more. They should delete hate messages faster. The SPD says hate speech often leads to violence.

More staff are planned for the police, the domestic intelligence service and the state's central cybercrime unit (Zentral- und Ansprechstelle Cybercrime Nordrhein-Westfalen). Alongside investigators and the courts, operators of platforms such as Facebook or YouTube are to carry more responsibility. They are to remove extremist and dehumanizing content faster and more decisively than they do now.

The SPD wants to step up prevention of extremism. The "Wegweiser" program, so far aimed at Islamism, is to cover every form of extremism in the future. Its existing contact points are to become prevention centers.

The SPD wants to stop extremism early. There is a program called "Wegweiser". So far it deals with Islamism. In the future it should cover every kind of extremism. The contact points should become prevention centers.

Prevention is meant to accompany law enforcement. The contact points of "Wegweiser" are to be expanded into prevention centers. They are to complement the mobile counseling teams against right-wing extremism and the counseling centers for victims of right-wing and racist violence, whose work the platform rates as good.

After the pandemic and the 2021 flood, the SPD wants to rebuild civil protection in North Rhine-Westphalia. Municipalities are to get lasting additional funding and organizational help, fire departments and aid organizations are to be better equipped, and public warning systems are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to prepare the state better for disasters. Towns and districts should get more money and help. Fire departments and helpers should get modern equipment. People should be warned faster. Sirens, apps and phone alerts are used for this.

In a disaster, a state-level crisis team is to convene; regional situation and command centers are to be set up at the district governments, linked by uniform software for staffs and control centers. The state law on fire protection, assistance and disaster response (BHKG) and the disaster plans are to be developed further, districts are to get binding plans of their own, and stockpiles such as masks and temporary bridges are to be kept. The warning mix is to include sirens, notice boards, apps, cell broadcast and public broadcasters. Satellite technology is to serve as a backup when phone and radio networks fail. Volunteers are to get easier release from work, more training and psychological support; minimum staffing standards are planned for municipal public order services.

The SPD wants more staff, better pay and faster construction and modernization in the prison system. Reintegration of offenders is to be strengthened through a rehabilitation law. Community service is to take priority over jail time served in place of unpaid fines.

The SPD wants more staff in prisons. Staff should get more pay. Prisoners should find their way back into life after prison. A new law should help with this. People who cannot pay a fine should do community work instead of going to jail.

During imprisonment, housing and jobs are to be kept where possible, contact with family supported, and prisoners with children allowed some family life. Prisoners are to be prepared for digital demands; teaching staff will be increased further and cooperation with independent offender support groups deepened. Construction measures are planned for mentally ill prisoners, beyond the prison hospital as well. For young offenders, probation conditions are to offer support alongside punishment. Staff in direct contact with people, such as bailiffs and court officers, are to be better protected from assaults.

The SPD wants to organize victim protection statewide and across ministries. A foundation is to compensate crime victims when other statutory benefits fall short. For children and teenagers who have suffered violence, centers for child-friendly questioning are to be created.

The SPD wants to help crime victims more. A foundation should be able to pay them money. This applies when other help is not enough. There should be special houses for children. There they are questioned in a child-friendly way.

The foundation is to follow the Bavarian model and also be funded from asset recovery, meaning assets confiscated from crimes. The so-called Childhood Houses are to follow the international concept of the Childhood Foundation and work across disciplines and agencies. The SPD wants to advance their creation and secure the funding. According to the platform, a justice system suited to children and victims helps avoid trauma and its follow-up costs.