The Frankfurt police want to renew parts of their authority structure in order to fight racist, anti-Semitic and otherwise misanthropic tendencies within the institution more strongly.

As Police President Gerhard Bereswill said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, the realignment is a reaction to the chat groups that have become known in the 1st district and at the Special Operations Command (SEK).

The authority now wants to publish the chat content for all officials for the first time.

Katharina Iskandar

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Ten major events with a total of around 2000 participants are planned.

“The only way to make it clear to employees that this is a fundamental issue is to show the pictures,” says Bereswill.

So far this has only happened in a small group of executives.

“This time we're going a lot further.

We also have to reach the grassroots directly and in an immediate exchange. "

"Dissolution of the SEK approved"

The Frankfurt police chief had not commented on the allegations against officials of his authority for a long time. The first and so far last time on June 9th of this year, the day of the searches of SEK officers in his house, before the special operations command was surprisingly relocated to Mainz-Kastel and realigned there. In the meantime, the command is back in Frankfurt - partly in a new composition. As Bereswill now reports, he had advocated the temporary dissolution of the unit as part of the realignment. From his point of view, it was inevitable.

The SEK was in the process of “developing in the wrong direction. That was shocking, and I say that as the police chief, but also as a citizen. ”The authority must“ continue to deal intensively with the allegations ”. This also means that the officials concerned, against whom, among other things, is currently being investigated on suspicion of sedition, comment on the allegations. "When the criminal proceedings have been concluded," said Bereswill, "we as the disciplinary authority expect answers from our Frankfurt colleagues."

In addition, Bereswill announced that it would for the first time face the allegations of racial profiling in a more targeted manner.

He said he had always defended himself against the blanket accusation, but he could not completely rule out that there were unjustified controls - based on characteristics such as origin or skin color.

"We are now dealing with this more consciously."

Regular supervision in the future

In addition to seminars on intercultural competence, there will be training courses on the subject of human rights, the constitution and fundamental rights, which the German Society for Democratic Education has designed for the Frankfurt police headquarters. Bereswill says: “We have to make it clear how dangerous it is for a police force when officers are guided by prejudice.” So it must be checked again and again whether the officer is acting “because the person has made himself generally suspicious”, or whether there are other reasons. If a person, for example at a car control, is only checked because they "have a different skin color, then that is absolutely unacceptable and must also be sanctioned," said the Frankfurt police chief.

At the same time, the head of the authority also sees the workload of the officials, who should be better looked after with regular supervision in the future. Refugee crisis, Islamism, corona pandemic - according to Bereswill, the police had to deal with many difficult tasks in recent years. “Society and general conditions are changing. And with it the police too. ”However, this must be a“ role model for society ”.