On the day after the decision, the Frankfurt police headquarters is preparing how the authority can do without the voluntary police service in the future.

In the end it was 37 volunteers who, on behalf of the police and the city, roamed through the city districts as a link to the citizens, in order to record grievances and to pass them on to the responsible districts.

Eleven women, 26 men;

the youngest is still a student, the oldest retired.

Only recently was a seventy-year-old boy who had been with us almost from the start.

Martin Benninghoff

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

Katharina Iskandar

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

The presidium had just sent out the commitments for 27 more police helpers.

Now the authority has to think about how to inform the applicants that nothing will come of the volunteer work.

The decision of the new coalition in Römer to abolish the voluntary police service was not taken entirely unprepared by the police.

After all, the plans were in the coalition agreement.

And yet the authorities had hoped to the end that at least a conversation would be sought, that arguments would be exchanged, that experience would be asked before the contract was terminated by the city.

The contract would have been extended at the end of the year

But apparently it had to be done quickly.

The notice period is three months.

At the end of the year, the contract would have been extended for another year.

The new security officer Annette Rinn (FDP) was therefore not looking for a conversation with the state police.

From the police headquarters on Friday it was heard internally that they were "disappointed", after all, they had always worked well with the city government over the years.

You don't always have to agree, but it would have been a good start to talk about such a decision, which affects the police so much.

Police President Gerhard Bereswill said on Thursday, before the new city government decided to abolish the voluntary police service, the helpers support the police "in an exemplary and reliable manner";

Not only in everyday life, but also at major events such as the Christmas market, weekly markets and district festivals.

In addition, the volunteers are now the ones who carry out the regular bicycle coding campaigns.

The voluntary police helpers have "been an important component of the security structure of our city for almost 15 years".

In doing so, they made "an important preventive contribution".

"City police instead of police officers"

As one of the arguments for the abolition of the service, Rinn mentioned in the city council the low number of hours that the volunteers are on duty, from their point of view.

In 2020 they would have spent around 1500 hours on duty, in 2019 that was 3700 hours.

The coalition's calculation then goes as follows: A single city policeman from the public order office works 1,800 hours per year.

“That means that with a single position more in the city police, the number of hours that is done in the voluntary police service is more than balanced in purely quantitative terms,” said Rinn.

This comparison is viewed critically by some.

Because as volunteers, the police officers were not allowed to do any “service to the citizen” because of the corona pandemic, as it is called in the police headquarters.

As a result, fewer hours came together.

With the city police, with permanent employees of the public order office, things look different.

You were always on duty ex officio.

Debate in the Romans

The debate in the Römer on Thursday was largely factual, with the exception of a few outliers.

It was widely criticized that the police officers concerned had not been heard in the political process.

The FDP security politician Uwe Schulz said in this context: "Do you ask the geese what they think of Christmas?", Which was greeted with laughter but without contradiction.

The CDU city councilor Martin-Benedikt Schäfer spoke out in favor of maintaining the service: "The coalition is showing that security is not a priority for you."

There were quite conflicting opinions on the conservative side: Mathias Mund, city councilor for the small BFF-BIG parliamentary group, praised the honorary position.

He also sees the police officers at risk, however, their operations on the streets of Frankfurt are "not responsible".

Mund's parliamentary group had considered voting against the application with the CDU and AfD - but then decided that the money that had become free should be used for the city police.

The problem: The police workers only get an expense allowance of seven euros per hour, so that in the end a small fee of ten thousand comes out.

That's not even enough for a job with the city police.