In the run-up to the Bundestag debate on the 2023 budget at the beginning of September, representatives of the federal police and police unions warn of massive deficits in equipment and staffing. According to internal documents, which are exclusively available to WELT AM SONNTAG, the federal police are missing almost half a billion euros for the years 2023 to 2026 to be able to procure the equipment that the authorities consider necessary.
In a statement by the Federal Police Headquarters in Potsdam from the beginning of July for the Federal Ministry of the Interior, an additional requirement of 200 million euros for drone defense is estimated for the next four years. 200 million euros are also needed to train for “life-threatening situations” and to equip the police forces accordingly. 100 million euros would have to be made available to purchase protected emergency vehicles, 70 million for ships, twelve million for “unmanned aircraft systems”, and finally 50 million euros to maintain vehicles of all kinds. If one deducts the funds already taken into account in the budget planning, a deficit of 497 million euros remains.
The Federal Police Headquarters drew up the list to prepare the Ministry of the Interior for the budget negotiations. The President of the Federal Police, Dieter Romann, had already warned the ministry in the spring that operational capability would be endangered without an increase in funds. In a letter from Romann dated March 30 to the responsible department heads in the Ministry of the Interior, which is available to this newspaper, the police chief writes that he is “concerned that the future financial resources of the federal police will not be sufficient to cope with the various challenges”. Romann then describes the volume of financial requirements already described.
When asked, the Federal Police Headquarters said that they did not comment on the ongoing process of drawing up the budget. Representatives of the traffic light coalition reject the accusation of not providing sufficient funds: “The federal police are not underfunded. Since 2016, we have invested more in this authority than in any other in the area of security,” says SPD member of the Bundestag and domestic politician Uli Grötsch.
In fact, funds and positions in the federal police force have recently been significantly increased. But according to police representatives, that is far from enough. “If the coalition does not improve the budget drafts for 2022 and 2023, it will be a medium-sized catastrophe,” says the head of the federal police union (GdP), Andreas Roßkopf. The national chairman of the DPolG federal police union, Heiko Teggatz, explains: “The security situation in Germany will soon deteriorate: When people can no longer afford to live, more than we would like to have stupid ideas – and that in cities, which are increasingly in the dark because the lights have been switched off. You would need more and a better equipped police force.”
There is also an urgent need for action in the state police, he says: “In countries like Berlin and Hamburg, the police equipment is alarmingly poor.” in the equipment, the buildings, the IT, the training. A lot of new positions have been created, but they also have to be filled.”
The death of a young asylum seeker from Senegal by police shots in Dortmund at the beginning of August had reignited the discussion about police equipment.
The public prosecutor is investigating. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) warns against hasty conclusions. “If in the end it turns out that something needs to be improved in terms of equipment, training or responsibilities, we will implement it as quickly as possible. Before making such a decision, however, it is important to clarify the facts properly,” Reul told WELT AM SONNTAG. The SPD opposition leader in North Rhine-Westphalia, Thomas Kutschaty, sees the Dortmund case as a “wake-up call to the Minister of the Interior”. It must be urgently checked whether there are “deficits or a need for improvement in the training of our police officers in dealing with mentally ill people”.