backup police? Or social workers in uniform? For years, the Greens and the CDU have been arguing about the profile of voluntary deputy sheriffs in the country. They are not making any progress in this legislative period either.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - For years, the Greens and CDU have wanted to put the voluntary police service on a new footing - but so far nothing has happened on the field. According to the coalition agreement of March 2021, the government factions want to set up a working group "which will develop a new conceptual basis for the voluntary police service within a year". To date, however, no working group has been set up at all, according to a response from the Ministry of the Interior to a request from the SPD, which the dpa has received.
Until the strategic realignment, the voluntary police service will be continued at the current level, and the regional police headquarters can continue to use police volunteers.
The SPD is now accusing Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) of refusing to work. SPD domestic politician Sascha Binder criticized that he was leaving the volunteers with an uncertain future. "The CDU promises everything and can't keep anything." The SPD is in favor of the abolition of the voluntary police service because the special challenges also make comprehensive training necessary. "Instead of strengthening the police service or abolishing it, the interior minister is letting the volunteers starve to death."
The volunteer police service in Baden-Württemberg supports the police primarily at large events, for example regulating traffic at folk festivals or parades. The volunteers are also active in preventive measures and warn against burglaries, for example. The service has existed as a reserve in the country since 1963. To the layman, the volunteer police officer looks like a completely normal police officer. For years there have been arguments about tasks and equipment.
The green-red government decided in 2011 not to hire any more auxiliary police officers. As the successor government, the Greens and CDU had already announced in the coalition agreement of the last legislative period in 2016 that they would create a new basis for voluntary service. But they failed. The two parties are far apart - the CDU wants to rearm, the Greens want to disarm. So now a renewed promise in the coalition agreement of 2021, the fulfillment of which is still a long time coming.
The state government is expressly committed to the voluntary police service "as a valuable addition to the Baden-Württemberg police and as a link to civil society," says the letter from the Ministry of the Interior. The assigned tasks should not be "prone to danger". In the course of the reorientation, tasks, equipment, the external appearance as well as the training and further education of the police volunteers are to be examined or defined in detail.
