SPD on public safety

The SPD wants to hire up to 500 police trainees a year so that more than 10,500 officers serve in the state in the coming years. Training, working conditions and diversity in the police are also to be developed further.

The SPD wants to hire more police officers. Up to 500 new people should start training each year. Soon the state should have over 10,500 officers. More women should become leaders in the police.

Besides the trainee positions, the platform plans extra posts for specialists and more administrative and service staff. Direct entry into the criminal investigation branch through the so-called K-Klasse is to be made permanent, with course content regularly adapted to new forms of crime. The dual degree in applied computer science with Mainz University of Applied Sciences is to keep bringing IT talent into the police. Flexible working hours and reliable shift schedules are meant to make the job more attractive. The share of women in leadership is to rise, the mentoring program continues, and the police contact point for LGBTI* people is to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to keep equipping the police with modern protective gear, new stun devices and body cameras, and to renew the vehicle fleet. Police stations are also to be modernized and new training centers built.

The SPD wants to give the police better gear. This includes protective clothing, new stun devices and body cameras. Cars, helicopters and boats will also be renewed. Police stations will be modernized.

According to the platform, personal protective equipment should meet the highest safety standards. Patrol cars, police helicopters and the river police fleet are to be kept technically up to date and ready for use. Operational training centers are planned for the Mainz police headquarters and the police university, plus a simulation center at the university. Where needed, police buildings are to be better secured against new and hybrid threats. Occupational health and safety, including prevention, is to be strengthened.

The SPD plans a digitization package for the police to improve data evaluation and analysis and to test the use of artificial intelligence. An innovation lab is to develop new digital tools and put them into practice.

The SPD wants to make the police more digital. The police should be able to analyze data better. They should also test and use artificial intelligence. A new lab will develop software for this.

The package is also meant to introduce new IT applications. The Onlinewache, an online portal where people can file police reports, is to become easier to use and gain more functions. With the project “Mobiles Arbeiten in der Polizei” (mobile working in the police), the SPD wants patrol and criminal investigation units to be fully digital by the end of 2026. Every station is to get a capable IT setup. The platform argues that digitization modernizes the police and increases security.

The SPD wants the police to be more visible in neighborhoods and villages and to raise the Bezirksdienst (neighborhood policing service) to more than 410 officers. Urban safety is to be shaped jointly with municipalities, public order services and urban planners, and crime prevention is to be expanded.

The SPD wants more police in neighborhoods and villages. People should find it easier to talk to the police. Police and towns should work together more closely. There should be more work to prevent crime.

Neighborhood officers are to work more proactively, without a specific trigger, and with a focus on outreach and prevention. In places with above-average crime, the platform relies on visible presence, prosecution and prevention. Funding is planned for local security partnerships, better lighting and the program for mobile vehicle barriers. Municipal crime prevention is to help towns set up their own prevention bodies, for instance to protect older people from scam phone calls. The police and the municipal enforcement service are to cooperate more closely.

The SPD wants to enable the police as quickly as possible to detect and counter drones. This is meant to prepare them for hybrid threats such as cyberattacks, espionage and attacks on buildings.

The SPD wants the police to be able to spot and stop drones. This should happen quickly. The police need new technology for it. They also need new experts.

The defense is to cover conventional and other types of drones. The platform expects that, besides detection and counter-drone technology, additional specialized staff will be needed. The police are to recognize new and hybrid threats early, prevent damage, and protect themselves against cyberattacks, espionage and attacks on their premises.

The SPD wants to revise the state's police law again. The next amendment is to examine AI-supported video surveillance and after-the-fact biometric image recognition; the party wants to introduce automated data analysis while keeping control over the data.

The SPD wants to change the law for the police. It will look at video surveillance with artificial intelligence. It will also look at letting computers recognize faces in images afterward. Computers should analyze police data automatically.

The platform argues that the legal framework must keep pace with technological and social change. Legal, technical, staffing and organizational conditions are to be continuously adapted to cybercrime, politically motivated crime and online hate. In the SPD's view, specialized investigation units have proven their worth, for example against child sexual abuse material, white-collar crime, terrorism and organized crime.

The SPD wants to act against every form of extremism, using all legal options available to the security authorities and the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service). It sees right-wing extremism as the greatest danger, followed by Islamism; prevention is to be expanded at the same time.

The SPD wants to fight extremism. It sees the biggest danger in right-wing extremists. Islamists also worry the party. The police should be more active online. Young people should learn to spot hate on the internet.

The security authorities are to pay particular attention to extremist activity. The police are to be more present online because, according to the platform, right-wing extremists and Islamists influence and recruit young people there. The SPD wants to expand prevention work and fund projects that build media literacy. It places special weight on young people developing a stable and resilient personality.

The SPD wants to give the state's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) better staffing, organization, legal powers and technology. Police are also to identify potentially dangerous individuals earlier, including where there are signs of mental health problems.

The SPD wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz. This is an agency that watches for threats to democracy. The police should also spot dangerous people earlier.

The platform calls for a comprehensive threat management system that brings existing structures together on a permanent basis. Early detection by police is also to cover signs of mental health problems. The domestic intelligence agency is to receive more staff, a suitable organization and the legal and technical tools it needs. Its ability to analyze large volumes of data and find the relevant parts is to be improved.

The SPD wants to better protect women who have suffered domestic or sexual violence. Police and the judiciary are to be trained for this, and electronic ankle monitoring based on the Spanish model is to be put in place.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. Police and courts should get special training. Violent offenders should wear an electronic ankle monitor. The device shows where the offender is.

The platform points to earlier steps such as anonymous evidence collection after an assault and wants to build on them. Police and the judiciary are to receive targeted training so that interviews and proceedings are handled with sensitivity and respect. Electronic ankle monitoring is to be used on the basis of the state police law and new federal rules, following the Spanish model. Under that model, the distance between offender and victim is monitored electronically.

The SPD wants to keep offenses such as tax evasion, money laundering and corruption a priority and to pool police investigative expertise for them. Against youth crime, it relies on the Häuser des Jugendrechts (joint juvenile justice centers).

The SPD wants to fight white-collar crime harder. This includes tax fraud, money laundering and corruption. Police should get better at investigating it. Juvenile justice centers should help against youth crime. Police, courts and social workers work together there.

According to the platform, tax evasion, money laundering, corruption, fraud and embezzlement cause major damage and endanger fair competition, the social systems and trust in the rule of law. Police investigative expertise in this field is to be expanded and pooled. The juvenile justice centers are to be strengthened as part of an approach combining prevention, social work and prosecution. The SPD also wants to support initiatives for Childhood Houses in the state.

The SPD wants to expand the state office for fire and disaster protection into a training and competence center with around 300 employees. Training capacity for emergency personnel is to grow considerably.

The SPD wants to enlarge the state office for fire and disaster protection. About 300 people should work there. More emergency workers should be able to learn and practice there.

The platform points to the reorganization of disaster protection after the flood disaster and wants to continue on that course. The academy for fire and disaster protection is to gradually raise its output to 50,000 course participant days. Staff and infrastructure are to be put in place for this. On-site training and e-learning are also being considered.

The SPD wants to keep supporting municipalities financially in civil protection and to continue flat-rate funding for fire departments. Sirens, emergency contact points and volunteering in the fire service are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to keep giving money to local fire departments. There should be more sirens. There should be places everywhere where people can go in an emergency. More people should volunteer as firefighters, especially women and girls.

Flat-rate funding for fire department vehicles and buildings is to stay and be adjusted to needs. Voluntary central purchasing through the state office and bulk orders are being considered; fire stations are to be built faster using modular construction and model designs. The state plans to provide its own equipment and vehicles, build up stockpiles, extend the siren network and set up shelter and supply points statewide. New staff software is meant to improve coordination in crises, and dispatch centers are to be better protected physically and in their IT. A funding program is to help set up youth and children's fire brigades.

The SPD wants to prevent attacks on police, firefighters, paramedics and other emergency personnel and to promote respect for them. Where needed, it would back federal-level initiatives for tougher sentences.

The SPD wants to protect police, firefighters and paramedics from attacks. Action days should teach young people respect. If needed, the SPD will support tougher punishment for attackers.

In the platform's view, personnel in the police, fire service, ambulance service, disaster protection and municipal enforcement deserve special protection and recognition. The statewide action days "Respekt. Bitte!" ("Respect. Please!") are to be developed further and aimed mainly at young people with modern formats and hands-on activities. Civic courage and consideration for others are to be encouraged. The SPD will support nationwide initiatives to widen sentencing ranges when it considers this warranted.

The SPD wants to keep prosecuting hate crime on the street and online as a priority of its justice policy. Victims of violence are to get more rights in criminal proceedings and more counseling services.

The SPD wants to punish hate and incitement quickly. This applies on the street and online. Special prosecutors' offices should handle it. Victims of violence should get more rights and more counseling.

Insults, threats and incitement to hatred are to be punished swiftly through specialized prosecutors' offices and close coordination with the police. The rights of victims of violence in criminal proceedings are to grow, with the platform stressing the fight against violence toward women and girls. Counseling services for people affected by hate, incitement and digital violence are to be expanded. The work of the state's victims' commissioner is also to be strengthened.

The SPD wants a prison system aimed at reintegration and plans to strengthen staff, buildings and transition management for this. Community service is to replace more jail terms served for unpaid fines, and psychiatric care for prisoners is to improve.

The SPD wants to modernize prisons. Prisoners should be able to live well in society again later. People who cannot pay a fine often go to jail. Instead, there should be more community service. Prisoners with mental illness should get better help.

Prison staff are to get equipment that better matches their needs, and the buildings are to be modernized. Transition management is to get more staff, and probation services are to work more digitally. The platform regards alternatives to jail for unpaid fines as fairer; they are meant to relieve prisons and ease reintegration. Outpatient psychiatric care in prisons is to become more professional, and forensic psychiatric facilities are to get more capacity. A specialized assessment unit for psychiatric questions is under consideration.