Germany: New stop and search powers
01 May 1999
After Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg introduced extended police powers years ago, Berlin and Brandenburg have become two of the last Laender to introduce an extension of police stop and search powers to include so-called "veiled" searches of non-suspects. As a "preventative measure against cross-border crime", the Berlin and Brandenburg police are now allowed to control (stop and search) all civilians without prior suspicion, particularly within 30 km of Germany's 250 km long border with Poland.
The regional parliament in Brandenburg passed the legislation on 6 May. The Interior Minister of Brandenburg, Alwin Ziel, said it was important to fall in line with BerlinÆs legislation and the new measures were necessary in order to fight serious cross-border crime such as drugs and the arms trade, "mafia like organised crime against private property" as well as human trafficking. The Partei des Demokratische Sozialismus (PDS) opposed the legislation as a violation of citizen's rights and argued its sole purpose was the extension of police powers. Alexander Dix, the deputy for data protection in Brandenburg, is also of the opinion that the extensive powers will make no visible improvements regarding the safety of civilians. The Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU) thinks the measures are not extensive enough to improve internal security and that the lack of police officers, cars, helicopters and computers would motivate criminals to commit more crimes.
In Berlin, the CDU and the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) passed legislation to allow non-suspect police controls on 4 April. Despite the fact that extensive stop and search operations have to be agreed by the police chief, Green MP and spokesman for internal matters, Wolfgang Wieland, said that this provision is a "whitewash" because references to "cross border crime" have previously been used to justify stop and search operations at any time. Police will now be able to extend the existing one-off ban for people to enter a public space to a blanket prohibition order. Homeless initiatives and streetworkers argue the law will be used to ban whole sections of society from entering the city centre or other prominent public spaces.
Another controversial aspect of the new legislation is the transformation of the Berlin Freiwillige Polizeireserve (FPR, Free Police Reserve) into a "Free Police Force". In future, civilians between the age of 18 and 45 will be able to apply to become "hobby police officers". After a two week training course, they will be armed and allowed to accompany the police on patrol, control traffic and conduct "object securing" operations. Although CDU and SPD interior ministers argue that they are only allowed to accompany the police, Wieland has pointed out that legal provisions already allow patrols and traffic controls to be carried out by the FPR without any police presence. He has gathered accounts of these unaccompanied patrols taking place. The coalition, he argues, is trying to push through an illegal provision.
The FPR in Berlin has a history of right-wing contacts and membership, and involvement in the arms trade. In 1993, five FPR members were arrested for membership of an international right-wing extremist arms trafficking organisation which led to an official inquiry. When the 2,400 FPR members were investigated, around 100 members resigned from the service before the investigation began and incriminating files vanished shortly afterwards. There were no convictions. In 1995, the inquiry resulted in the charging and conviction of 109 FPR members for other criminal offences.