Security | Berlin police officers should see red

A Berlin police officer warns an elderly woman about con artists. Photo: dpa/Michael Brandt The working conditions in the Berlin police should be improved. Overtime should be limited and only permitted in the event of extraordinary staff shortages. New operational concepts for meetings or gatherings of football fans are intended to provide relief. Police officers who see seriously injured and dead people in traffic accidents and have difficulty coping with it should receive reliable psychological support. Post-traumatic stress disorder should be recognized as a consequence of a work-related accident. The Berlin Left promised all of this in its program for the House of Representatives election on September 20th, as well as faster repairs to police stations. The election program also expressly states: “Violence against public employees is unacceptable.”

The Left won the election with 25.7 percent of the vote. MP Elif Eralp (Left) could become governing mayor if the Greens and SPD can reach an agreement on a coalition. Berlin has already experienced a number of red-red and red-green-red senates since 2002, only once for five years and once most recently for three years, interrupted by coalitions of the SPD and CDU. There has been no mass exodus of Berlin police officers. But now politicians and the media are giving the impression that the left's government responsibility would be a catastrophe for the capital's police officers. The left is being brought closer to criminals.

"The Berlin police are too good for a clan mayor who wants to take away their resources and powers," the "Bild" newspaper quoted Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Manuel Hagel (CDU) as saying. The minister made his Berlin colleagues an offer to move to his federal state. Everyone is welcome at any time.

According to the police union (GdP), Hesse, Bavaria and Brandenburg have made similar offers. "Our colleagues don't live on the moon, they are very aware of the offensive offers from other federal states and are taking a close look at the direction things are going here," commented GdP state chairman Stephan Weh on Tuesday. It is completely logical that the capital's police officers are sought after due to their "excellent training, extensive operational experience and resilience and that several security authorities in other federal states now sense their opportunity." In this way, they could solve their youth problems. The GdP has always warned that the higher pay with lower deployment frequency in other federal states could tempt civil servants to move there.

When asked by nd, Brandenburg's Interior Ministry made it clear that Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) would warmly welcome anyone who wanted to get involved in the country's security. However, a corresponding video is “explicitly aimed at young people in the career search phase.” It would therefore not be an attempt to poach someone.

The current number of personnel in the Brandenburg police is around 8,340. In October 2026, this should increase by at least 100 with the addition of police candidates, explains the ministry. The target number of 9,000 police officers should be reached by 2029. Trained police officers are usually not available any faster. The Berlin police have a workforce of more than 27,000.

The GdP is embittered by the fact that at the special party conference of the Berlin Left on Friday evening, a young woman said: "If there are armed clans in Berlin, then they are the ones who run into our demos with clubs." She was undoubtedly alluding to police violence. State managing director Bjoern Tielebein then explained: "I want to make it clear that that is not our language." State chairwoman Kerstin Wolter added: "The police cannot be equated with organized crime." The police are there to "fight organized crime."

Nevertheless, the GdP complains that there has been no clear distancing and an apology. The left seems to have no interest in taking a clear stance on anti-Semitism and always gives hate and hate speech a platform.

“The Greens and the SPD must understand that the security of this city is at stake with the exploratory talks starting on Thursday,” claims GdP state leader Stephan Weh. There are pithy words from Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD), "but her party is sitting at the table with people who either don't have their party under control or are consciously letting everything happen." The GdP expects decisive action against anyone who discredits police officers. “Otherwise there won’t be any police officers left in the capital,” says Weh.

Such predictions are reminiscent of prophecies before the election of the left-wing Democrat Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York at the end of 2025. There was previously talk of an impending exodus of police officers. »He's a problem. He is anti-Semitic. "He's someone who has a lot of crazy ideas," the New York Post quoted Raymond Kelly, who was police chief of New York from 1992 to 1994 and 2002 to 2013. However, there was no mass exodus of police officers from New York.

What crazy or rather sensible ideas does the Berlin Left have, which was inspired by Mamdani's ideas during the election campaign? "We don't want to have an authoritarian window-shop policy through ever new laws, powers and senseless restrictions on fundamental rights, but instead we want to fight the social causes of crime," it says in the election manifesto. The concept of security should not be based on police criteria, but rather must be based on combating social causes of insecurity. »This must also be reflected in the distribution of financial resources. We want to stop the ever-increasing, expensive upgrading of the police and redistribute the resources."

Police operations, for example during demonstrations, unprovoked checks in "crime-prone places" and weapon ban zones, are personnel-intensive and often not effective. "We will examine how we can adjust police staffing levels to the level of other city states, plus capital-related additional needs in accordance with the capital financing agreement." The funds released should be used to finance positions in emergency and crisis services, in street social work and the like.

"I think this demonization of the left is silly and no longer works."

»I think this demonization of the left is silly and no longer works. “It’s not the first time we’ve been in power in Berlin,” says MP Niklas Schrader (Left). »Of course we will bring our civil rights goals into a coalition. Of course we will address problems in the police,” Schrader told “nd” on Tuesday. "But we are fighting for good working conditions, and of course that also applies to the police."

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