Berlin Senate does not guarantee cuts in police training!

Berlin Senate does not guarantee cuts in police training!

Berlin, Deutschland - The Berlin Senate has decided not to make cuts in the training of young police. State Secretary Christian Hochgrebe made this promise in the interior committee of the House of Representatives and emphasized that the training planning for the coming years is considered "without an alternative". The Senate is thus responding to reports that possible cuts of up to 40 percent of the study places reported. Hochgrebe appealed to the parliament not to change the Senate plans during the upcoming budget negotiations. The police union said facilitated, but would like to wait for the final budget decision before it celebrates.

There are currently a total of 1,224 training and study places at the police academy in Ruhleben and at the University of Economics and quite a year. These places are crucial because Berlin faces the challenge to cope with impending personnel loss in the coming years. The Green Group, on the other hand, criticizes the development as a hidden personnel reduction and warns of a reduction in study places for upper service by up to 40 percent. This is done under the black and red coalition, which strives for more internal security and plans to take sharper measures for the police.

study places and personnel requirements

The University of Economics and Law has already prepared measures and plans to offer only 360 places for the police studies in the future, instead of the previous 600. This means a significant decline, since training positions at the police academy will also be deleted. In the entire training area of ​​the police, there is a loss of about a fifth of all places. Vasili Franco, the domestic spokesman for the Greens, has concerns about this reduction and points out that the police already have difficulty finding suitable applicants. A wave of retirement could affect a third of the staff by 2030.

Currently 27,208 people are employed by the police in Berlin, including 18,558 in the police enforcement service. In recent years, the occupation rate at the police academy and the HWR has only been 76 percent and 67 percent in the first half of 2024. Of 572 candidates at the police academy, only 426 have been taken over since 2021, which corresponds to a takeover rate of almost 75 percent. This quota is 85 percent on the HWR. So far, around 900 newly trained candidates have been to the police since 2018; In the future it could only be 700, which is a significant restriction.

training challenges

The training landscape does not only face challenges in Berlin. According to reports, 25 percent of the prospective police officers have not successfully completed their three-year dual police law studies in North Rhine-Westphalia. Professor Rafael Behr from the Hamburg police Academy explains that this dropout rate is higher than in earlier years. The union of the police in NRW also criticizes the care relationship between students and lecturers and the equipment of the training facilities, which could impair the quality of the training.

Berlin sees itself in a critical situation that not only depends on the current budget negotiations, but also on the general development in the field of police training. The challenges are diverse and require strategic planning and clear decisions.

The developments in police training remain a central topic, not only for the security of Berlin, but also for the future of the police as a whole.

Further information on the current developments can be found here: Tagesspiegel and nd current .