Brokstedt’s deadly knife attack raises questions about safety on trains and stations. The police unions see an urgent need for action.
Munich – It is difficult to put such a vague feeling into words, but Karin Prien, Minister of Education in Schleswig-Holstein, tries anyway. On Friday she will visit the commercial school in Neumünster and speak to the teachers and classmates of the two young people who were killed in the attack on a regional train. She has experienced a school community that stands together, says the CDU politician afterwards. But also “a feeling of fear and insecurity” – far beyond school.
The type of insecurity is well known in Bavaria, and similar acts have already taken place here. In November 2021, for example, when a 27-year-old injured four people with a knife on an ICE to Nuremberg. Or in 2016, when a 17-year-old attacked passengers on a regional train near Würzburg with an axe. The question then as now: are stations and trains safe enough?
After a knife attack in Brokstedt: Police unions see an urgent need for action
The deputy chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Heiko Teggatz, sees a need for action. “In order to prevent such acts, we urgently need more police patrols on the trains,” he told our newspaper. In concrete terms, this means three officers, one of whom ideally with a bodycam, who walk through the compartments on selected routes. Unfortunately, that happens very rarely at the moment. “We simply cannot do that with our current staff.”
Therefore, from the point of view of the union, more security forces are needed. Teggatz says that 3,500 additional posts have already been requested for 2022 in the railway sector alone. 1,000 were approved. That is clearly not enough. The police union (GdP) is also demanding significantly more staff.
Police presence on trains and at train stations: according to critics, not a consistent solution
According to Deutsche Bahn, around 5,500 federal police officers are regularly deployed at train stations and on trains throughout Germany, as well as around 4,300 security forces. A DB spokesman was unable to give figures for the Bavarian railway area on request. However, he emphasized that the company spends more than 180 million euros every year to “guarantee security in the best possible way”.
It is controversial whether more officials in stations and trains could prevent acts like Brokstedt’s. Critics argue that patrols would then have to be used in department stores or any number of other places, such attacks could happen anywhere. Sadly, Bavaria also has experience here: In June 2021, an attacker stabbed three women in a Würzburg department store.
Consequences after Brokstedt’s knife attack? Bavarian Ministry of the Interior is silent
The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior did not want to comment on the attack on the regional train and possible consequences. Irene Mihalic, domestic politician for the Green Party and herself a police officer, told our newspaper: “Police presence must be guaranteed as best as possible in central locations such as train stations.” “look very closely”. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as absolute security against such attacks.
The alleged perpetrator Ibrahim A. remains silent; the stateless Palestinian is known to the police for a number of other crimes. This also includes the knife attack on a man in front of a homeless shelter in Hamburg in January 2022. He was released after a year in custody, which surprised even his lawyer Björn Seelbach. He told the “Spiegel” that from his point of view it would have been better if his client could have been prepared for his dismissal.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) shares the astonishment. “How could it happen that he was no longer in a correctional facility despite so many previous convictions?” she asked during a visit to Brokstedt. It could be worth asking your party: the Ministry of Justice has been in the hands of the SPD for ten years.
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