Missing police staff in Burgenland: SPÖ calls for reforms

Missing police staff in Burgenland: SPÖ calls for reforms

In Burgenland, the SPÖ draws attention to an alarming lack of police staff. In a recently carried out tour about the police station in the state, Roman Kainrath, member of the state parliament and police officer, expressed his concern about the current situation. According to Kainrath, there is not only a lack of police officers, but the existing forces are also burdened with a high number of overtime. In 2023, the police in Burgenland accumulated over 255,000 more hours, which, on average, corresponds to almost two and a half months of additional work per official. Specifically, a defect of 200 full -time forces is complained, which significantly impairs the implementation of essential measures, such as the transport service.

"The police are no longer managed by practitioners, but by statistics," explains Kainrath, thereby criticizing increasing bureaucratization within the police. In order to counteract this threatening situation, the SPÖ will bring in a motion session in the next state parliament session that demands measures to improve the situation.

claims of the SPÖ

In the application, the SPÖ, led by club chairman Roland Fürst, calls for an upgrading of the police profession. This includes a personnel offensive that should accelerate the recruitment of new civil servants, as well as the adaptation of salaries to avoid loss of sick leave. This is particularly important because this topic is considered a central point among the police. The SPÖ also relies on a service law reform that is supposed to make the profession of police officer more attractive to win more people for the police.

On the other hand, the State Police Directorate (LPD) Burgenland and the Interior Ministry (BMI) see the situation differently. In a press release, they emphasize that the Burgenland is "well equipped". The authority referred to a successful nationwide recruitment program that brings numerous interested parties to the police school in Eisenstadt. It is reported that the number of new admissions and applications has been almost doubled compared to the previous year, which indicates that there are currently no personnel bottlenecks for the future. The LPD announces that the pension exits in advance to compensate for them.

In the context of this discussion, it remains to be seen how the different views between the SPÖ and the competent authorities will develop and what consequences this will have for the police in Burgenland.