Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The new polo shirts for the police in North Rhine-Westphalia are to be tested by officials in Bochum next summer. According to the Ministry of the Interior, a test run this year is not possible: the call for tenders only started in June, and an interested manufacturer would only have to send in its prototypes in the autumn. The police union (GdP) is not going fast enough.
The GdP had recently asked Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) to put pressure on the industry so that the planned "wearing test" could be carried out this summer. In fact, according to a spokeswoman, the relevant manufacturers had signaled to the ministry before the tender that it would take a long time to produce the sample shirts due to the global economic situation. Therefore, the interested parties were given four and a half months to deliver after the bid. That would be in winter at the latest.
"However, trying to wear them in the autumn and winter months is out of the question, since the polo shirts are intended as an alternative to the service shirt for hot summer days. This is the only way to ensure the greatest possible acceptance among the police officers," says the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore, the 50 test shirts should be distributed in the summer of 2023. It doesn't go as quickly as the GdP imagines - because of the long deadlines in the tender.
