BFE +

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BFE + of the Federal Police

State level Federation
position Unit in the Federal Police (in the department of the BMI) with a special focus
Supervisory authority Federal Ministry of the Interior (Department B)
founding Summer 2015 as evidence preservation and arrest unit plus the federal police
Servants up to 250
Web presence www.bundespolizei.de

The BFE + of the Federal Police (short BFE + BPOL or colloquially BFE + ) are units of specialized police forces of the German Federal Police for the fight against terrorism . The list took place from summer 2015. The abbreviation BFE stands for evidence preservation and arrest unit .

tasks

The BFE + is intended to increase the ability of the Federal Police to react and persevere in the event of a terrorist attack and to relieve GSG 9 , especially in the event of prolonged terror and special situations. The BFE + is supposed to close the gap between GSG 9 and the federal riot police. To this end, it has the task of binding attackers in particularly dangerous situations, protecting bystanders and caring for the injured. If special units such as special task forces (SEK) or GSG 9 cannot be deployed or cannot be deployed in good time, the BFE + should be able to take action independently against offenders and carry out emergency access. Outside of such operations, she mainly performs normal day-to-day tasks for the federal riot police.

history

The establishment of the BFE + was initiated as a result of the various terrorist events in 2015, especially as a result of the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine . In the summer of 2015, the Federal Ministry of the Interior reflected on the German options for defending against this type of terrorist attack and reassessed the police means. The finding of the German ministry was that the German police forces were not adequately prepared for an operation against militarily trained and equipped perpetrators. GSG 9, which emerged from the Federal Border Police, would quickly reach its limits in a comparable case, as it consists of relatively few officials, is centrally stationed and specializes in the fight against terrorism, hostage rescue and bomb disposal . In April 2015, the Federal Police Headquarters set up the working group “Building a robust unit in the Federal Police”. As a result, GSG 9 received the order to train the future members of the new BFE +. The unit emerged from the previously existing evidence preservation and arrest units of the Federal Police. The BFE + was presented to the public on December 16, 2015 by Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière .

On June 30, 2017, the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced that the construction of the BFE + had been fully completed and that full operational readiness had been established in time for the G20 summit in Hamburg .

organization

The Federal Police has five BFE + with a total of around 250 law enforcement officers . The first unit with 50 officers was built within the Blumberg Federal Police Department ; The further expansion to five units took place in several phases by June 2017. The five BFE + are affiliated to the evidence preservation and arrest hundreds (BFHu) of the federal police departments Uelzen , Blumberg , Bayreuth , Sankt Augustin and Hünfeld and each form the third evidence preservation and arrest unit (in addition to two regular BFE) within the hundreds . The SFOE + differ from the regular SFOE through additional training for officials and advanced equipment. The additional training of the BFE + officials to become members of the BFE + takes place in an eight-week supplementary training BFE + by the GSG 9. As for the BFE, the helicopters of the Federal Police Air Service of the Federal Police Directorate 11 can be used to move the units quickly .

By being used by the BFE +, civil servants are entitled to an allowance for special assignments ( Section 22 Paragraph 1 No. 4a Ordinance on Difficulty Allowances , 250 euros per month since January 1, 2017).

equipment

In addition to the HK P30 service pistol, BFE + officers wear ballistic vests and carry the G36C assault rifle when they are on anti-terrorism operations . The BFE + is also equipped with the Protected Emergency Vehicle 2 (GEF-2) in order to be able to approach an assassin with an explosive belt, for example.

Media coverage

The ARD points out that federalism also applies in terrorist situations : Police operations are a matter for the federal states. It is not the federal government, but the affected federal state that is in charge of operations in a terrorist attack. The BFE + can only become active at the request of the respective federal state.

The time -Autoren Kai Biermann and Johanna Roth suggested that the police should be upgraded here for the mini-army. The lines between the military and the police would become blurred. The missions for which the BFE + trains were similar to those of the Bundeswehr. "' The new unit proceeds like an infantry platoon in urban and urban combat , said one participant."

criticism

"The new unit gives the police a more military face overall," said the police scientist and sociologist at the Hamburg Police Academy , Rafael Behr , opposite the time immediately after the BFE + was set up and continues:

"Experts have unanimously reported to me that they consider the massive armament of the new unit to be excessive"; More heavily armored vehicles make sense, "but long military weapons are covered," said Behr.

Behr particularly points out the so-called spill-over effect of the unit, because if there was no terrorist attack, the police officers would certainly not be sitting around. “I suspect they are also being used increasingly in the fight against organized crime , for example in raids . This is a so-called spill-over effect: if you already have the new unit, you use it. ”This effect is also known from other special units. After the establishment of the SEK Bremen in 1984, the police chief Ernst Diekmann justified the frequent use of the unit in other situations with the fact that hostage drama and terrorist hunts were very rare in Bremen . " Mogadishu is not every day." But after all, "they must not get out of practice."

In May 2016, politicians and security experts criticized the inadequate operational readiness of the SFOE + or consider it to be unsuitable for surviving in an emergency. Irene Mihalic , spokeswoman for security policy for the Greens, believes the BFE + is only partially ready for action, as it is supposed to perform too many tasks and cannot be relocated soon. Rolf Tophoven considers the eight-week training for the unit to be insufficient to meet the requirements of the mission. Former officers of the Federal Border Police and the Deputy Federal Chairman of the Police Union also criticize unavailable heavy weapons, sniper rifles and protected vehicles.

Known missions

  • December 2015: The first known operation of the BFE + Blumberg took place on December 22, 2015 when a Syrian smuggler was arrested. Together with the GSG 9 officers of the BFE + arrested the man in Strausberg (Brandenburg). A total of 52 officers were involved in the operation.
  • December 2015: Operation on New Year's Eve at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
  • January 2016: Italian authorities reported that at the end of 2014 three cargo ships, which were originally intended for scrapping, were misused for criminal smuggling . The ships with a total of 1,766 migrants on board were set on course to Italy by their crews, partly using autopilot, and then abandoned. According to previous investigations, on January 20, 2016, the Turkish national police made several attacks against the smugglers' group at various locations in Turkey, as well as the GSG 9 and BFE + in six German federal states.
  • July 2017: G20 summit in Hamburg
  • December 2018: Stuttgart Airport due to spying attempts.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Police: Today the BFE + anti-terrorist unit put into service in Blumberg.
  2. ↑ Svenja Kaiser: New anti-terrorist unit takes up service. (No longer available online.) In: rbb-online.de. December 16, 2015, archived from the original on August 26, 2016 ; accessed on December 16, 2015 .
  3. ↑ De Maizière introduces new anti-terrorist force. In: n-tv.de. December 16, 2015, accessed December 16, 2015 .
  4. ↑ a b Complete operational readiness. Federal Ministry of the Interior, press release, June 30, 2017, accessed on June 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Federal Police - Federal Riot Police. Retrieved August 30, 2017 .
  6. ^ Björn Müller: Federal Police “BFE +” anti-terrorist group - first unit set up. In: Sicherheitspolicy-journalismus.org. December 16, 2015, archived from the original on December 23, 2015 ; Retrieved December 18, 2015 .
  7. ↑ ww: Federal Police modernize protected vehicle fleet: FLW 100 with MG5A1 for Eagle IV and Enok 6.1. In: strategy technology. blogspot.com , August 7, 2018, accessed March 28, 2020.
  8. ↑ Michael Götschenberg: Yes, the new anti-terrorist unit makes sense. In: tagesschau.de. December 16, 2015, archived from the original on December 19, 2015 ; Retrieved December 17, 2015 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Kai Biermann , Johanna Roth: The police play war. In: Zeit Online . December 16, 2015, accessed December 29, 2015.
  10. ↑ Mogadishu practiced . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1984 ( online - July 2, 1984 , accessed December 17, 2015).
  11. ↑ BFE + anti-terrorist unit only partially operational. (No longer available online.) In: ZDF.de. May 3, 2016, archived from the original on December 3, 2016 ; Retrieved July 9, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Arrest warrant for people smuggling resulting in death. GSG 9 and the new BFE + unit in action. In: bundespolizei.de. December 22, 2015, accessed January 8, 2016 .
  13. ↑ ZDF magazine “Frontal 21”: Conditionally ready for action - criticism of the federal government's new anti-terrorist unit BFE +. ZDF Presse, May 30, 2016, accessed July 8, 2017.
  14. ↑ Turkish National Police and Federal Police: Joint strike against ghost ship smugglers. In: bundespolizei.de. January 20, 2016, accessed February 8, 2016 .
  15. ↑ BPOL-H G20: Final balance sheet of the Federal Police Directorate Hanover - BAO Hanseat after the G20 summit 2017 -. (No longer available online.) In: presseportal.de. Archived from the original on July 9, 2017 ; Retrieved July 12, 2017 .
  16. ^ Report: Stuttgart airport probably spied on twice - State of Baden-Württemberg - Reutlinger General-Anzeiger. Retrieved December 20, 2018 .