Train stations have always been a meeting place for all social classes and therefore also a hotspot for crime. When it comes to security, our federal government, especially Interior Minister Faeser, is not keeping up.
Just a few days ago, an article in FOCUS online caused nationwide astonishment. We are talking about an article about the violence on Thuringian regional trains: “Battlefield” train: Railway employees lock themselves in for fear of migrants.
What sounds like an exaggerated headline is unfortunately a sad reality in Germany. Yeah right. This phenomenon is not unique to Thuringia, but rather affects the entire Federal Republic of Germany.
At the beginning of its term in office, the federal government still dreamed of the so-called “transport transition” and obviously lost touch with reality because of its ideological convictions.
We are light years away from a transport transition and, as a result, attractive public and long-distance transport. The causes are as diverse as they are obvious.
In this article I would like to focus on the security-specific problems and thus also give the federal government, especially the Federal Minister of the Interior, a damning report card.
The train station as such has always been a meeting place for all social classes and therefore also a focal point for various criminal phenomena. However, what we are currently experiencing at stations and on trains quite rightly goes beyond the imagination of many people. If you look at the crime statistics, the extent of the catastrophe becomes very real.
In particular, we are seeing a monthly increase in violent crimes, sexual crimes and property crimes. In the month of March there were over 2,305 (an increase of 17.7 percent over the previous year) violent crimes on railway facilities and there were already over 175 (an increase of 48 percent over the previous year) sexual offenses.
These figures only refer to the first three months of 2024 and only to railway facilities. We also have to note that crimes involving knives most often occur in and around the train station.
I have to repeat myself because there is no end to the climb in sight. It is also important to mention that, in relation to the total population, the suspects are predominantly men who do not have a German passport. This fact must also be clearly stated and not dismissed as populism.
Manuel Ostermann is the first deputy federal chairman of the DPolG federal police union and a member of the CDU.
Train stations are becoming more and more of a place of horror and are rightly avoided by many people. So it is time to be honest, to clearly identify the problems and not to lose sight of possible solutions.
The federal government, and specifically the Federal Minister of the Interior, is responsible for the largest security agency in Germany.
The Federal Police is also responsible for railway police tasks. In concrete terms, the same government that wants a transport turnaround also has responsibility for safety.
But this government expressly doesn’t want to know anything about security. On the contrary: massive savings will ensure that the all-important federal police are systematically drained of blood.
Specifically, we are talking about over 500 million euros that Germany’s largest security agency will have to save in 2024 alone. The fact is: The Federal Police urgently needs 3,800 additional positions in the railway police sector. However, the federal government consistently ignores this necessity.
The federal police also urgently need equipment that is appropriate to the situation in terms of command and operational resources. We are particularly talking about the distance electrical impulse device (DEIG), also popularly known as the Taser.
Apart from years of extremely successful testing, nothing worth mentioning happens here either. The DEIG is not only highly efficient and de-escalating, but also saves lives.
In view of the latently high terrorist threat situation in Germany, a new medium-range weapon is urgently needed, among other things. The current MP 5 in the inventory is well over 30 years old.
But here too there seems to be a consensus in the federal government that there is no need for effective leadership and operational resources. Instead, millions of taxpayers’ money are wasted on unfounded inspection receipts and labeling requirements or on a police commissioner who is at least questionably installed.
In the area of digital radio, too, we are far behind the necessary standards. When it comes to legal authority, the bottom of the barrel is finally broken. Here, no one even thinks about giving the federal police modern powers.
The Federal Interior Minister’s rhetorical phrases, which express appreciation for the Federal Police and awareness of the importance of the task, sound like mockery to us.
This federal government is also stubborn in the area of targeted video technology, here the so-called anonymized behavior recognition. In this case, it is the FDP that is preventing real digitalization and thus a real expansion of security.
The view here is obviously still that data protection should be prioritized over victim protection, even though there are no concerns about data protection. There are no concerns because data sovereignty lies with the Federal Police and the recording and evaluation are stored in a comprehensible process.
This constant rejection on the part of the FDP can no longer be explained to anyone. But Deutsche Bahn, as a semi-public company, apparently doesn’t even think about security, but only about maximizing its own profits.
It starts with adequate office space, continues with the staff and ends with lighting concepts that make sense from a traffic psychological point of view.
In this entire range, Deutsche Bahn does absolutely nothing, or at least not enough, and is constantly the cow standing sideways in the stable. So we are experiencing a resounding failure of the transport transition across the board in conjunction with a security policy that does not deserve the name security.
It is solely thanks to the self-sacrificing work of the railway employees and the professional service of the federal police that goes beyond any limits that Germany is not making headlines around the world for the catastrophic circumstances in the railway sector and that the security situation is not even more dramatic than it already is.
I dare say that this development will continue to gain momentum as long as this inaction continues. The headlines from Thuringia are just sad evidence of a nationwide problem. So let’s be honest.
There will be no improvement with this federal government. It continues to be taboo and ignored because ideological politics obviously have no effective security policy. The people in Germany suffer.
Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues for their sometimes dangerous service. We as the German Police Union will not leave you alone and will continue to hold a mirror up to this federal government. Promised.