Police Union

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Police Union
(GdP)
logo
founding September 14, 1950
Seat Hilden
main emphasis Union for employees of the German police
Chair Oliver Malchow
Members 194,926 (as of 2019)
Website gdp.de

The Police Union , or GdP for short , is a German union that advocates the interests of German police workers and is a member of the German Federation of Trade Unions .

The GdP is open to membership for all police employees ( police officers , administrative officials and collective bargaining employees) and customs officers , as well as fire service members in some districts . With 194,926 (144,115 male, 50,811 female) members (as of 2019), it is about twice as strong as the German Police Union with approx. 94,000 members. Within the GdP, so-called groups of people represent the specific interests of women, senior citizens and young police workers.

history

The police union was founded at federal level on September 14, 1950 in Hamburg . It emerged from the community of interests of police officers' unions in the British occupation zone in the already existing states of Hamburg, Lower Saxony , North Rhine-Westphalia , Schleswig-Holstein and West Berlin . On March 16, 1950, they came together from different police associations. The GdP has been one of the eight member unions of the German Federation of Trade Unions since April 1, 1978 .

Goals and content

The union represents the professional, societal, economic, ecological, social and cultural interests of employees and former employees of the police and customs. In particular, it strives to improve general working and living conditions as well as civil servant and labor law. The GdP describes itself as independent of governments, administrations, political parties and religious communities.

The GdP obviously sees itself not only as a trade union, but also as a professional organization. This gives it a special position among the DGB unions. Beyond its actual trade union task as a representative of workers' interests, the GdP, like a specialist organization, pursues social and political goals with great emphasis in terms of police presence and activity. Important topics include criminal policy, combating the causes of crime, transport policy, tightening of surveillance and control, development of criminal law, organization and tasks of the police and police training.

The goals of the GdP are to be achieved by influencing legislation, concluding collective agreements, negotiating with authorities and, if necessary, using union weapons. It takes part in the elections for the staff representatives and supports the staff councils in fulfilling their tasks. The magazine Deutsche Polizei appears monthly and the magazine Die Kriminalpolizei appears quarterly in the publishing house Deutsche Polizeiliteratur, which is affiliated with the union .

Positions

The GdP campaigns for fan representatives in football to prevent violence and against marking police officers on duty. She sees no major problems with organized crime and wants to expand the protection of the constitution .

Speed ​​limit on highways

The union advocates a speed limit on autobahns, since in Germany around 3,200 people die in traffic accidents every year and the speed limit plays a major role in preventing accidents and "that with a speed limit you can avoid around 80 deaths per year nationwide ".

Federal finance police union project

The latest project of the GdP is the restructuring of the Federal Customs Administration into a "Federal Finance Police". The GdP is pushing for a restructuring of all enforcement areas of the customs into a so-called Federal Finance Police. Within the GdP district of the Federal Police, a “Federal Finance Police Commission” was formed to deal with the concerns of the customs workers organized in the GdP and to promote the project of the same name politically. In February 2008, the customs district group was founded. a. replaced the previous commission. The Essen customs investigation officer Frank Buckenhofer was elected as the first chairman of the district group.

In the opinion of the GdP, the customs administration can be divided into the two broad areas of federal tax administration and federal finance police. When performing its various tasks, customs are currently in a tense relationship between the tax administration as the financial authority and the enforcement service, which performs internal security tasks, which corresponds to the character of a police authority . The different tasks of tax administration and enforcement services have so far been anchored in a joint administration in the business area of ​​the Federal Ministry of Finance .

The recruitment of qualified personnel for the increasingly police tasks (enforcement tasks) of the customs administration is increasingly a problem. There are only a few points of contact between the tasks of the tax administration and the tasks of fighting crime or averting danger by the enforcement service. In view of the increasing need in the fight against internationally organized crime, the police part of the previous customs should be dovetailed with the other authorities entrusted with this task by means of sensible organizational measures.

The fight against smuggling, for example, is on the one hand a measure to secure tax revenue (import duties), but above all also to avert danger from the police such as the fight against drug and weapons smuggling. Following this line of thought, the previous customs administration is divided into two parts.

The structural dividing line running through the customs administration, based on the different tasks, should, according to the ideas of the police union, be found in the organizational structure of the customs administration. The areas of tax administration and enforcement services should be organizationally separated into two independent administrative areas with regard to the differently qualified staff , the different material equipment and the different partners in the cooperation. The existing staff would be assigned to the different areas according to their previous tasks:

The branches of service listed in the Federal Finance Police would be completely internal security organs in terms of their tasks, border security, goods and cash controls, security as well as the fight against crime and criminal prosecution, but would remain subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Finance.

The Federal Finance Police project would come very close to the request of the European Commission to restructure the Federal Customs Administration into a “police for the movement of goods”. The CDU / CSU parliamentary group joined this demand in February 2004 . In February 2006, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen also expressed their support for the establishment of a federal finance police. In July 2006, at the request of members of the budget committee of the Bundestag , the GdP presented a detailed concept which is intended to bring about savings in the three-digit million range by streamlining the organizational structures.

In April 2010, the CDU politician Eckart Werthebach, as head of the commission for the evaluation of the security authorities , said that he wanted to check whether a financial police could be created.

The Federal Finance Police project is controversial within the Federal Customs Administration. Opponents of the project justify this with traditions and state that German customs has always been independent. They fear that if the enforcement services were to be split off, they would no longer be able to perform their own tasks without being tied to the fiscal administration. In the opinion of the critics, this would be tantamount to "paralyzing" the administration, since in the area of ​​customs enforcement one is also dependent on police knowledge, experience and methods and these forces are dependent on purely customs training. The comparison to customs administrations of other countries such as Austria , the USA or Italy , which have already outsourced part of their customs administration to a police department, is irrelevant, since the German customs have no barracked units and a conversion due to the low staffing levels in the enforcement areas is utopian. In addition, it should not be disregarded that the customs border inspection service in the Third Reich was expanded to become a customs border guard, then a reinforced border inspection service, which in this form (military guarding of the borders) is to be regarded as a direct forerunner of the Federal Border Guard founded in 1951, today's Federal Police . The demand for a federal police force that u. a. Securing the borders would, in the opinion of the opponents of a federal finance police, come over 70 years too late.

Controversy

Hamburg

At the GdP Hamburg, chairman Gerhard Kirsch had to fight a scandal in 2015. He is accused of forging documents through manipulation of the association's statutes. Later a property damage report followed, which turned out to be unfounded. A few months later, the chairman was flashed and hit the headlines again.

Berlin

In 2015, the then Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt resigned from the GdP. The reason given was the lack of clarification of the verifiable right-wing populist past of the board member and temporary press spokesman for the Berlin GdP, Steve Feldmann (née Schwittek).

Until 2000, Feldmann had been active in the right-wing populist organization Bund Freie Bürger , which was monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Then he tried his hand at the right-wing populist Freedom Youth (FJ) until 2009. In an interview with the RBB , he also describes Polish citizens as “alternative asparagus pickers”. In addition, Feldmann organized Europe-wide contact of the Freedom Youth with over 70 right-wing extremist organizations and took part in demonstrations against the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe . The main criticism received was the reaction of the GdP board, which “sat out” these allegations and did not contribute to any clarification until Kandt left, as well as Feldmann's lack of openness in his election to the board.

Federation

In June and July 2020, the GdP commented on anti-fascism in its own magazine (German Police) and on Instagram. She described anti-fascists as "anti human" and as the "criminal legacy" of the RAF. Furthermore, the hashtag "#bluelivesmatter" was used, which is an allusion to the "#blacklivesmatter", which is often used in the ongoing debate on racism, in which the police were exposed to much criticism.

Federal Chairperson

Chairwoman of the Federal Executive Board of the Police Union:

International cooperation

In December 2015, the GdP left the European umbrella organization EuroCOP . The reasons were insurmountable differences with regard to certain people in the management structures of the association, too little opportunity to influence European politics and a standstill in the further development of EuroCOP since 2011. The GdP is now without an international umbrella organization.

Further memberships

Since March 1, 2016, the GdP has been a member of the Deutsche Verkehrswacht . As a trade union, it is also an automatic member of the state German Road Safety Council .

GdP star

The “GdP star” has been a prize awarded annually since 1988 by the Kassel district group of the police union (GdP).

See also

Web links

Commons : Union of Police  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DGB: DGB membership figures 2019. In: www.dgb.de. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  2. ↑ DGB: DGB membership figures 2019. In: www.dgb.de. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  3. ↑ 12 Positions of the Police Union for Peaceful Football, September 2014
  4. ↑ A clear no to the labeling requirement. May 12, 2011
  5. ↑ Position paper OK. January 2012
  6. ↑ Strengthen the protection of the constitution. Improve parliamentary influence. Regain confidence. January 2013
  7. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Police Union and Insurer for Speed ​​Limits , January 22, 2019
  8. ↑ heise.de Speed limit dispute: Police union calls for an independent report , December 29, 2019
  9. ↑ Thesis paper for a future federal finance police. (PDF file; 196 kB) (No longer available online.) Police Union, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on January 28, 2016 .
  10. ↑ http://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Ermittlungen-gegen-GdP-Chef-in-Hamburg-,ermittlungengdp100.html ( Memento from August 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ http://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Vorwuerfe-gegen-GdP-Chef-Ein-Skandal-der-keiner-ist,ermittlungengdp102.html ( Memento from September 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ http://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/hamburg/Blitzeraffaere-GdP-Chef-stell-Straffrage,polizei3288.html ( Memento from October 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ^ Yael Wilms: Right past Nazi affair with the police union? In: Berliner Kurier , March 31, 2015, accessed on June 6, 2018.
  14. ↑ Martin Kröger: Ex-right wing as a PR front man . In: Neues Deutschland , March 31, 2015, accessed on June 6, 2018.
  15. ↑ Plutonia Plarre: Police President shows the flag . In: Die Tageszeitung , April 22, 2015, accessed on June 6, 2018.
  16. ^ German police - the magazine of the police union . July 1, 2020, p. 9 .
  17. ↑ July 2020 edition. Accessed July 1, 2020 .
  18. ↑ GdP press office on Instagram: “DP GERMAN POLICE - July The Red Army Faction (RAF) is history. It was founded 50 years ago in May. But that's ... " Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
  19. ↑ GdP press office on Instagram: “DP GERMAN POLICE - July The Red Army Faction (RAF) is history. It was founded 50 years ago in May. But that's ... " Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Police want to counter black US movement. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Nina Monecke: Criminologist: "Racism in the police is a structural problem". In: ze.tt. Accessed July 1, 2020 (German).
  22. ↑ Der Spiegel : Bernhard Witthaut elected as the new GdP boss. dated November 22, 2010
  23. ↑ Der Spiegel: Police Union: Oliver Malchow elected as new chairman. dated May 13, 2013
  24. ↑ https://www.gdp.de/gdp/gdp.nsf/id/dp201601?open&l=DE&ccm=400020 (January 2016 issue - Eurocop: Exit is a new beginning of the European trade union work of the GdP, pages 2–3)
  25. ↑ http://www.deutsche-verkehrswacht.de/home/presse-center/pressemitteilung/article/gdp-und-deutsche-verkehrswacht-wollen-gemeinsam-verkehrsunfallpraevention-intensivieren.html