Baden-Württemberg: Minister of the Interior Thomas Strobl: “Violence against public service workers runs counter to our values, we do not accept it without action”.
“Violence against public service workers does not only affect the police, rescue services and fire brigade. Teachers, job centre workers, civil servants in local government or nursing staff in hospitals are also increasingly experiencing psychological violence such as insults or threats. We do not accept this inactively or even with a shrug of the shoulders. Of course, we first need as realistic a picture as possible of the incidents of violence against public service workers – in other words, a comprehensive and specific picture of the situation. With the research project InGe, we are creating a long-term, continuous and comprehensive data basis for the targeted prevention of violence against public service employees,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Thomas Strobl on Sunday, 4 December 2022.
The aim of the joint project “Situation Picture Instrument on Violence Experiences of Public Service Employees” (InGe) is to develop a new, software-supported instrument for recording and evaluating incidents of violence against public service employees. This is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the occurrence and development of violence against public service employees in Baden-Württemberg. The Joint Centre for Local Crime Prevention (GeZ KKP) in the Ministry of the Interior, for Digitalisation and Local Authorities of Baden-Württemberg is leading the research network. Other partners are the Centre for Security and Society at the University of Freiburg (UFr Css) and Disy Informationssysteme GmbH. As associated partners, the project is supported by the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office (Centre for Security Research), the Bavarian Red Cross, the Baden-Württemberg Civil Servants’ Association, the German Trade Union Federation (BW District), the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Baden-Württemberg Accident Insurance Fund.
Another bridge between practice, politics and science is built by an advisory board consisting of a total of ten members from different institutions. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the two-year project within the framework of the guideline “Anwender-Innovativ: Forschung für die zivile Sicherheit II” with a total of about 700,000 euros.
The police crime statistics of Baden-Württemberg show a steady increase in violence against members of the public service over the last five years. The number of police officers harmed reached a peak in the state in 2021 with 11,919 victims. The same applies to the number of victims of violence among other public service employees (1,041) and members of the fire and rescue services (263). Looking ahead to 2022, the number of victims among police officers has so far remained at the high level of the previous year, while the number of victims among members of the fire and rescue services as well as among other public service employees is even expected to increase further.
“As a result, our goal is to first create a reliable data basis. We want to put both state and municipal authorities in a position to recognise problem areas and, based on this, to develop strategies and targeted measures for better protection of public service employees. In the future, it should be possible to use the situation picture tool nationwide, even beyond Baden-Württemberg,” explained Interior Minister Thomas Strobl.
Further information on the project can be found at www.kkp-bw.de/veroeffentlichungen and on the BMBF’s security research programme at www.sifo.de .
