Security Streamlined.
My father was a railway employee. In some way or other, this pushed me towards the railway system. There came a time when I discovered that there was also a railway police. As I saw it, they were responsible for the railway stations and other facilities of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. However, I did not understand why we needed them.
After graduation from high school, I had to serve in the army. There were military police. It was easier for me to understand why they were needed. After all, soldiers must be pretty tough fellows if you want to win wars with them. And consequently, you cannot treat them with as much consideration as normal citizens.
At Siemens, we had plant security. Among other things, they supervised venue security and patrolled along the fences. Just like the guards at the armed forces “secured” the barracks and military areas. For me, plant security at Siemens was something like the Siemens AG railway police.
Today, you hear that, for instance, Gasprom has its own small private army for this and other purposes. Yet, I still do not really understand the necessity to have plant security. Just like I do not really understand the justification for having a Gasprom army.
When they privatized the German Railway System, the railway police was not converted into the railway police of the Deutsche Bahn AG. Instead, they were made part of the border patrol. After all, trains are mobile and as such they are always something like a sort of “border”.
For me, border patrol was always a very special police. The very meaning of the word indicated what I clearly understood to be their purpose. They were supposed to secure and defend our borders in times of peace, just like it used to be the intended task of the German Armed Forces in times of war.
Today, the border patrol has other tasks, as well – such as tracing illegal employment. In the near future, they are supposed to also control if the “minimum wage legislation” is adhered to. The tax revenue offices also have their own police – the tax fraud investigators.
Now we have many private polices, as well. And they, too, have one thing in common – they wear uniforms and drive around in cars imitating police vehicles.
Well, I really do not fully understand it. Basically, we have a law, don’t we? So why is not one police force sufficient? It could do its job according to the distribution of tasks and regional responsibility and see to it that the law is kept and the citizens are protected against violations, couldn’t it?
😉 Or do they intend to install separate police forces for each individual piece of legislation?
Mind you, I am not even talking about police-like systems such as the German Intelligence Service. Naturally, they do not wear uniforms. The plans to legalize the Armed Forces for “action inside the country” is something I prefer not even to think about.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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