What do the parties in Lower Saxony say on public safety?

The AfD wants to take the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) out of the interior ministry and run it as a separate state office. Its leadership is to answer to a parliamentary body with representatives of all parties in the state parliament. This is meant to rule out party-political influence by the minister.

In Lower Saxony the domestic intelligence service is part of the interior ministry. The AfD wants to make it a separate office. The minister should no longer have influence over it. A group from the state parliament should oversee the office. All parties in parliament should have a seat there.

The AfD rejects any further tightening of the Weapons Act and the implementation of the EU Firearms Directive. In its view, the rules only affect law-abiding sport shooters, hunters and collectors, not illegal weapons. Instead, illegal gun ownership and trafficking are to be tackled.

The AfD does not want stricter gun laws. It also rejects an EU rule on guns. The party says the rules only hit hunters, sport shooters and collectors. The state should rather act against illegal guns.

The AfD calls for tougher action against left-wing extremism. Public funding is to be granted only if recipients declare they do not support extremist structures. Violent Antifa groups are to be classified as terrorist organizations and the platform "Indymedia" is to be banned.

The AfD wants stronger action against left-wing violence. Groups should only get state money if they make a promise. They must declare that they do not support extremists. Violent Antifa groups should count as terror groups. The website Indymedia should be banned.

The AfD wants to strengthen the state police by reforming its structure and training. A public order force and municipal order offices with broader powers would take over routine tasks so the police can focus on protecting people from crime.

The AfD wants a stronger police force. A new public order force should do simple tasks. For example, it should record accidents and check speed. The police should then focus on crime.

The AfD wants to pay volunteer firefighters for operations, drills, and training, and suggests a pension scheme as an incentive. Professional fire departments would get more staff and equipment because, according to the program, their tasks are becoming more complex.

The AfD wants more people to join the volunteer fire service. They should get money for operations and drills. Their service should also raise their pension later. Professional fire departments should get more staff and equipment.

The AfD wants to better protect ambulance and rescue staff from assaults while on duty. The state would support the services with self-protection measures, such as buying stab-resistant vests.

Rescue workers are sometimes attacked at work. The AfD wants to protect them better. The state should help buy protective vests, for example. These vests protect against knife stabs.

The AfD wants to strengthen disaster response with more staff and equipment and build the state's own response units. It also wants food stockpiles for crises and a modernized system for alerting the public and emergency crews.

The AfD wants better protection in disasters. The state should get its own units for this. There should be food reserves for a crisis. People should get better warnings when there is danger.

The AfD wants a stricter prison system: lower standards for inmates, work to cover prison costs, and drug searches in cells. Relaxations of custody would require the prosecutor's consent, and rehabilitation would rank behind protecting the public.

The AfD wants stricter rules in prison. Inmates should not live better than people in nursing homes. Their work should cover prison costs. Day release and leave should need the prosecutor's approval. Safety should matter more than help for offenders.

The AfD wants juvenile sentences to be imposed very quickly and would create new judgeships for this. Minor offenses would also be punished immediately; overall, law enforcement would focus on violent, sexual, drug, and burglary crimes as well as extremist offenses.

The AfD wants fast punishment for young offenders. For this, there should be more judges. Small offenses like graffiti should also be punished right away. The AfD does not want lenient courts.

The AfD wants to raise sentencing ranges for repeat juvenile offenders significantly. The extra time is meant mainly for a longer rehabilitation phase in which the young people work and are subject to conditions.

The AfD wants tougher sentences for young people who commit crimes again and again. They should be supervised for a longer time. They should work and wear an ankle monitor. They should not get cash benefits from the state during this time.

The AfD wants repeat offenders to be held in pretrial detention as a rule and suspects with unclear identity or multiple citizenships to be detained in general. Forensic psychiatric custody (Maßregelvollzug) is to become stricter, with fewer relaxations. Protecting the public is to take priority over rehabilitation.

The AfD wants to hold more suspects in jail until their trial. This should apply to repeat offenders. It should also apply to suspects with unclear identity or several passports. Dangerous offenders should get leave less often. There should be more prison places.

The AfD wants to enforce the expulsion of foreign offenders and record the identity of all non-EU citizens entering the country. Crime statistics are to collect all data and make it available for analysis.

The AfD wants to send foreign offenders back to their home countries. The state should register everyone from outside the EU when they enter. Crime statistics should include more data. The AfD says this helps prevent crime.

The AfD rejects negotiated verdicts in criminal proceedings and wants sentences to be suspended on probation less often. Prominent or wealthy people should get no advantage in sentencing. Criminal judges are also to accompany police on duty for one week each year.

The AfD wants no deals about verdicts in criminal trials. Famous and rich people should not get lighter sentences. Probation should be granted less often. Judges should spend one week a year on patrol with the police.

The AfD wants to provide a free lawyer to every victim who joins a criminal case as a co-plaintiff and to expand the rights of victims and relatives in criminal proceedings. Witnesses, victims and judges are to be better protected from intimidation.

Crime victims should get a lawyer for free. This applies when they take part in the trial as co-plaintiffs. Witnesses and judges should be better protected. Courts should have protected rooms with video technology.

The CDU wants to give people holding local offices and council seats stronger protection against hate and attacks. Contact points and counseling services are to be expanded, and online crimes are to be prosecuted consistently. The platform points to 180 attacks and crimes against this group in 2019.

Mayors and local council members often face hate and attacks. The CDU wants to protect them better. There will be more places that help and give advice. Crimes on the internet will be prosecuted.

The CDU wants to combat organized crime and so-called clan crime with coordinated checks by several authorities and strict punishment of even minor offenses. In its view, this kind of crime undermines trust in the rule of law.

The CDU wants to be tough on criminal gangs. Several authorities should carry out checks together. Even small offenses should be punished. The state should take away money from crimes. People who want to leave a gang should get help.

The CDU wants to change the state's data protection and police laws so that authorities can share data comprehensively. More information is also to flow between the German states and with Europol; in the party's view, data protection must not stand in the way.

Authorities should be allowed to share more data with each other. The CDU wants to change laws for this. Police, the domestic intelligence service, and immigration offices should exchange data electronically. Computer programs should analyze the data.

The CDU wants fast-track criminal proceedings to be used more often in simple cases and wants greater use of short "warning-shot" detention for young offenders. The aim is constant pressure on offenders and stopping criminal careers early.

Simple criminal cases should go to court faster. Young offenders should more often spend a short time in detention. This should keep them from further crimes. There should be more "houses of juvenile justice." There, police, courts, and youth services work together.

The CDU wants more specialized investigators to prosecute crimes by extremists, online hate crime, and child pornography. Attacks on emergency workers and local politicians, as well as fraud targeting older people, are also to be pursued specifically.

The CDU wants to prosecute extremists strictly. Extremists reject democracy. Hate on the internet should also be prosecuted. Investigators against child pornography should get more staff and technology. Special teams should solve fraud against old people.

The CDU wants to fill vacant posts at courts, prosecutors' offices, and prisons and to adjust pay. All existing court locations are to be kept so that the judiciary stays within easy reach in rural areas too.

Courts and prosecutors should get more staff. Prisons should get more staff too. Pay should get better. All courts in the state should stay where they are.

The CDU wants daily entrance checks at all courts and more video surveillance in courts and prisons. In its view, courts and prosecutors' offices must be safe places at all times.

All courts should have checks at the entrance every day. Courts and prisons should get more cameras. This should protect the staff. A specially secured court building should be built in Celle.

The CDU wants to maintain enough prison places and build a new prison if needed. Prevention and deradicalization work in prisons is to be expanded, and the effect of rehabilitation measures is to be reviewed using reoffending rates.

There should be enough places in prisons. If needed, the CDU wants to build a new prison. Programs against radicalization should grow. The CDU wants to check whether help for prisoners works. Then it wants to adjust the law.

The CDU wants bodycams to be used more often and to allow their use inside homes. Patrol cars are to get dashcams, and the police are to be better equipped and protected overall.

Police officers should wear cameras on their bodies more often. They should also be allowed to film inside homes. All patrol cars should get a camera. The police should get better equipment. Spitting at police officers should be punished more harshly.

The CDU wants to raise the police allowance to 200 euros, increase other allowances, and speed up promotions. At least 1,600 places at the police academy are meant to keep staffing levels stable.

Police officers should get more money. The police allowance should rise to 200 euros. Officers should be promoted faster. The police academy should have at least 1,600 places. This way the police should have enough new recruits.

The CDU wants to dissolve the separate complaints office for the police and replace it with one for the entire state administration. It thereby opposes what it calls a culture of mistrust toward the police.

Today there is a separate complaints office for the police. The CDU no longer wants this office in that form. There should be one complaints office for all state agencies. People should also be able to report things there without giving their name.

The CDU wants to clear the renovation backlog in police buildings with an investment push, relying more on private partners and modular construction. Police stations in rural areas are to be kept.

Many police buildings are old. The CDU wants to repair them or build new ones. Private companies should take part more often. Police stations in the countryside should stay. The police should get better computer technology.

The CDU wants to equip the police with better digital tools and test smart video surveillance in pilot projects, especially in soccer stadiums. Officers would also patrol the internet without needing a specific reason.

The CDU wants to give the police more digital tools. Cameras with smart software would be tested, for example in soccer stadiums. Officers would also patrol the internet. The police would get more IT experts.

The CDU wants to reorganize the police: fewer staff units, more specialized units and a more visible presence across the state. It cites internet crime, cyberattacks, clan crime and child abuse as reasons.

The CDU wants to reorganize the police. There would be more special units, for example against crime on the internet. The police should be visible everywhere in the state. Police administration would get smaller.

The CDU wants to further strengthen municipal public order offices and help cities and towns expand video surveillance. Drug dealing in public places is to be stopped and punished.

The CDU wants to strengthen the public order offices of cities and towns. Towns should be able to put up more cameras. The CDU wants to stop drug dealing at schools and public squares. Order officers would use the police radio network.

The CDU wants to reorganize the state's cyber defense and create a dedicated state office against online and cyber crime. It cites the shift of crime into the digital sphere and the threat from Russian hacker units.

The CDU wants to protect Lower Saxony better against attacks from the internet. A new state office would be created for this. A council of experts would advise the government. The CDU sees a special danger from hackers from Russia.

The CDU wants a fundamental overhaul of the law on the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service): it would be allowed, among other things, to surveil homes and search computers remotely, and data protection rules the party considers unnecessary would be dropped. Monitoring of left-wing extremism would be raised to the level of the other areas.

The CDU wants to give the Verfassungsschutz more powers. The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence service. It would be allowed to monitor homes and secretly search computers. Some data protection rules would be dropped. It would watch left-wing extremism as closely as other extremism.

The CDU wants to give disaster and civil protection considerably more money and equipment. It points to heavy rain and extreme weather and to the work of professional and volunteer responders.

The CDU wants to spend more money on disaster protection. There would be more vehicles and reserve equipment. Emergency drills would take place regularly. Volunteers should get time off work more easily.

The CDU wants to bring the state's sirens back into service and send warnings to cell phones via cell broadcast. Operators of critical infrastructure would be required to prepare for disasters and would be monitored.

The CDU wants to warn people faster when there is danger. Sirens would work again. Warnings would also come straight to cell phones. Important operators such as power or water suppliers must make emergency plans.

The CDU wants to make volunteering in the fire service more attractive, including through a dedicated state firefighter pension. The fire protection law would be fundamentally reformed and funding for fire departments broadened.

The CDU wants to strengthen the volunteer fire service. Volunteers would get a special firefighter pension. The state would give more money for training and fire stations. The CDU wants to protect firefighters better against violence on duty.

The CDU wants more intensive support for crime victims and puts victim protection ahead of protecting offenders. Victims of sexual offenses would get a mandatory legal counsel, and support services for domestic and sexualized violence would grow.

The CDU wants to help crime victims better. Victims of sexual offenses would always get a lawyer. Counseling centers and women's shelters would get secure funding. Witnesses should be able to testify without fear.

The CDU wants to expand prevention work against extremism of every kind. Prevention councils would be developed further, justice staff trained, and Islamism prevention made more effective.

The CDU wants to stop extremism early. The prevention councils in the state would be improved. Justice staff would learn more about extremist groups. Children in sports clubs would also be better protected from abuse.

The CDU wants to set up local security partnerships that work on preventing extremism and on deradicalization. They are meant to address right-wing and left-wing extremism, antisemitism and Islamism.

The CDU wants local partnerships for security. They should stop extremism early. Extremism means people reject democracy. Hate against local politicians should also be a topic.

The CDU wants to give Jewish institutions special protection and help pay for security measures. Against antisemitism it relies on education and prevention. It justifies this with historical responsibility toward Jewish life.

The CDU wants to give Jewish institutions special protection. The state should pay money for their safety. The CDU wants to teach people about hatred of Jews. It wants to stand against attacks on Jews.

The Greens want to give disaster response services and the Havariekommando (Germany's maritime emergency command) more staff and funding. Ship cargo is to be made safer and checked more often while still in port. Cooperation among North Sea countries and maritime research are also to be expanded.

The Greens want better protection when accidents happen at sea. The Havariekommando helps when ships have accidents. It should get more money and more staff. Ship cargo should be checked more often in port.

The Greens want to amend Lower Saxony's law on the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) so that 14-year-olds are not handled by that agency. For young offenders they favor non-custodial youth welfare measures over prison.

The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence service. The Greens say it should not deal with 14-year-olds. Youth welfare should be in charge instead. Young people who commit crimes should get help, not prison.

The Greens want to revise Lower Saxony's police law, review expanded police powers for effectiveness and proportionality, and scale them back. A structural commission is to draw up recommendations on police equipment and training.

The Greens want to change the police law in Lower Saxony. The police should have fewer powers to interfere with people's rights. A commission should suggest better equipment and training. The police should be well prepared for digital crime.

The Greens want to create an independent police commissioner appointed by parliament whom both officers and citizens can contact. An organizationally separate internal review unit would investigate suspected crimes by police officers.

The Greens want a new office: a police commissioner. Police officers and citizens can go there with problems. A separate unit should also investigate police officers suspected of crimes. Today, colleagues from other stations do this.

The Greens want to improve legal protection at demonstrations and introduce anonymized identification for officers in closed police units. Violating the ban on face coverings would no longer be a criminal offense, and mounted and canine units would be banned at assemblies.

The Greens want to protect people at protests better. Police officers in group operations should wear a number. That way they can be identified later without their name. Covering your face at a protest should no longer be a crime. Police horses and police dogs should be banned there.

The Greens want transparent rules for video surveillance in public spaces, including a public register of cameras. They reject mass video surveillance without specific cause because, in their view, it does little to avert danger.

The Greens want clear rules for cameras in streets and squares. A public list should show where cameras are. Agencies should only get the footage under fixed conditions. The Greens reject watching everyone without a reason.

The Greens want a ticket system that documents every police stop in writing so that those affected can prove excessive checks. Police work is also to be monitored by researchers, and training is to focus more on civic education and diversity skills.

The police may not stop people because of how they look. So the Greens want a receipt after every police stop. It shows the place, time and reason. Researchers should study how the police work. Officers should learn more about diversity and democracy.

The Greens reject the powers added to Lower Saxony's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) in 2021 and want to continue reforming it. Its powers are to be limited, information requests made easier and parliamentary oversight strengthened.

The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence service. It got more powers in 2021. The Greens reject that. Citizens should find out more easily what the service knows about them. Parliament should check the service more closely.

The Greens consider much higher investment in civil protection and disaster response necessary, citing the effects of climate change and the war against Ukraine. Plans include better equipment, preventive strategies and a task force for peatland and forest fires.

The Greens want to spend much more on disaster response. Climate change brings more floods and fires. There should be better warning systems and emergency supplies. A new task force should deal with forest and peatland fires. Fire departments should attract more people.

The Greens want petty offenses such as cannabis use for personal consumption, fare evasion and dumpster diving to no longer be handled through criminal law. Jail time served in place of unpaid fines should be avoided wherever possible, because the platform regards it as costly, counterproductive and socially unfair.

The Greens do not want to punish small offenses as crimes. One example is cannabis for personal use. Another is riding without a ticket. People who cannot pay a fine should not go to jail if possible.

The Greens want to consistently confiscate assets gained through crime and seize real estate bought with laundered money. Public prosecutors' offices are to get more staff for this.

Some people make money from crime. The Greens want to take this money away. The state should also seize houses bought with dirty money. Prosecutors should get more staff for this.

The Greens put the reintegration of prisoners at the center of the prison system and want to expand open prisons for suitable inmates. In the platform's view, successful rehabilitation is the best protection for victims.

Prisoners should live without new crimes after their release. The Greens want more help in prison for this. There should be therapy, schooling and job training. More suitable prisoners should move to open prisons. There they may leave the prison during the day.

The Greens want to put more focus on preventing crime and to draw up a prevention strategy for all of Lower Saxony. Victims are to get more attention in criminal proceedings, including through faster proceedings for violent crimes and counseling close to home.

The Greens want to stop crimes before they happen. There should be a plan for all of Lower Saxony. Victims of crime should get more help. Court cases about violence should go faster. Counseling should be available close to home.

The Greens want to prosecute hate speech and hate crime more strongly, including online, and to give police and the justice system more resources for it. This comes with more civic education, support for those affected, an action plan against racism and revoking gun permits held by opponents of the constitution.

Some people attack others out of hate. This often happens online. The Greens want to pursue these crimes more strongly. Police and courts should get more resources for this. People who are attacked should get more help. Enemies of the constitution should not have guns.

The Greens want to keep soccer matches safe while lowering the cost of police deployments. To that end, authorities, clubs and fans are to draw up security concepts together. The party also wants to take action against violence and bigotry in sports.

Soccer matches should stay safe. But police operations should cost less. Authorities, clubs and fans should make plans together. The Greens will look into a fee for organizers of very risky matches. Violence and hate in sports should be fought.

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.

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.

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 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 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 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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.