New public management reforms in German police services.
| Verfasser | Ritsert, Rolf |
| Posten | Report |
1 Introduction
New Public Management (NPM) has become a standard international model for public administration reform (Schedler and Proeller, 2002: p. 163) during the last two decades. The rise of NPM reforms in Germany had several impacts on the federal and state police services. Against this background, we compare and contrast the development of NPM reforms in the police services to analyze if the NPM concepts of entrepreneurial management are appropriate to reform this special type of executive administration.
At first we depict the competences of Germany's eighteen polices services assigned by the German constitution and present policies' responsibilities defined by federal or state police law. Correspondingly we highlight characteristics and derive implications for NPM reforms.
Secondly we describe global economic forces and socio-demographic change, and the upcoming new management ideas generating reform pressure towards NPM reforms.
Thirdly we summarize the development of NPM reforms and distinct three phases to identify varying NPM implementation measures and NPM variants within the police services.
2 Police Services as a special type of public administration: Characteristics and Implications for Public Management Reforms
We argue that contexts are of outstanding importance when analyzing management reforms (Flynn, 2002: p. 57). The context of the specific German police system presents several implications for the introduction of management reforms which we like to discuss in the following.
Competences of German police services assigned by the German constitution
Under the German constitution (German Basic law) legislative powers on the general police law are assigned to the federal states (Grundgesetz, Artikel 70). Only special police responsibilities are assigned to the federal police services, e.g. the Border Police tasks (Grundgesetz, Art. 73 Nr. 5), the suppression of international terrorism (Grundgesetz, Art. 73 Nr. 9a), and the coordination of federal and federal states' authorities in criminal police matters (Grundgesetz, Art. 73 Nr. 10). Therefore the fundamental responsibility for public security falls under the legislative competence of the federal states' authorities (Schenke, 2007: p. 10).
Hence, each of the 16 federal states enacted its own police law and maintains its own police service (Landespolizei). In addition, the federal government has two specialised police services, namely the Federal Police (Bundespolizei, BPol) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA).
Competences of German police services-Implications for management reforms
Because of the separation of competences of police services management reforms are quite diverse and heterogeneous as they are part of the individual states' or federal government's policy programme.
Since police services have been a symbol of the specific state's authority (Terpstra and Van der Vijver, 2006: p. 91) and are perhaps the most political of all bureaucracies, partisan politics influence management reforms. A commonly invoked condition for successful management reforms is the particular willingness of political leadership to drive through radical changes (Flynn, 2002: p. 63) which might be different within governments' initiatives.
Besides, the political context management reform concepts also have to be in line with the historical context of various governments' experience. For instance the reform process began later in the "new" federal states than in the "old" ones as a long period was necessary to transform the East German police forces (Rickards and Ritsert, 2008).
Responsibilities of German police services at the federal states' level (Landespolizeien)
The state police laws define the responsibilities of the Landespo-lizeien. In general, the main responsibility of the Landespolizeien is to maintain public order and security by preventing and detecting crime (Lange and Schenck, 2004: p. 103). As security was named a "basic right" and became a "state duty" (Lepsius, 2004: p. 436) the German police perform preventive safety measures (prevention of crime) as well as repressive safety measures (detection of crime) (Folkers and WeiBgerber, 2008: p. 163). Within this context further responsibilities include keeping peace, protection of private and public property, investigation of crime, and the enforcement of law.
The Landespolizeien are subordinate to their respective federal state Minister of the Interior and are basically divided into four branches: uniformed police (Schutzpolizei), criminal police (Kriminalpolizei), river police (Wasserschutzpolizei) and the mobile reserve units (Bereitschaftspolizei). Chart no. 1 provides a brief overview of the four branches and their responsibilities.
Chart no. 1: Branches and responsibilities of the Landespolizeien (federal state police forces) Name of the branch of service Areas of responsibility Uniformed police (Schutzpolizei) - Prevention of upcoming dangerous situations (e.g. crowd control) - Traffic regulation - Investigation of petty and medium-level crimes Criminal police (Kriminalpolizei) - Fight of most serious crimes, especially organised crimes, economic or serial crimes (e.g. theft, extortion, illegal drugs, counterfeiting) - Pursuance of politically-motivated criminal acts River police--uniformed - Control of traffic on state (Wasserschutzpolizei) waterways Mobile reserve units--uniformed - Support of the security and (Bereitschaftspolizei) criminal police forces on special occasions (e.g. demonstrations, state visits, major disasters, sporting and other mass events) - Training and education of junior staff Source: Own chart following Promberger et al., 2005: pp. 82 ff. Due to the police services' origin in their historical context, to customary police organisations and the existence of specialised police units in a number of federal states, the official denominations among Germany's various police services may differ from federal state to federal state. Accordingly, hereafter we simply refer to the two federal and sixteen federal states' overall organisations as "police services".
Responsibilities of German police services at federal level (Bundespolizeien)
Both police services at federal level, the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office come under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Bundesministerium des Innern).
According to the law governing the federal police selected main tasks are, among others, the following: maintaining of border security, establishment of security at German international airports and railways, protection of key public buildings (Bundespolizeigesetz, 2009).
The following chart no. 2 provides an overview of the responsibilities of the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office.
Chart no. 2: Branches and responsibilities of the Bundespolizeien (federal police forces) Name of the branch of Areas of responsibility service The Federal Police - - Maintenance of border security uniformed - Protection of federal buildings and foreign embassies - Provision of the federal government's mobile response force for internal security events - Ensure security at international airports and on German railways - Provide counter-terrorism forces (GSG 9) - Serve as air (or sky) marshals - Participation on international projects and cooperation - Surveillance and search measures involving very serious crime (Mobile Surveillance, MEK) The Federal Criminal - Official relations of the police Police Office forces of state and federal levels with foreign police and justice authorities - Assistance to federal and state police forces to prevent and prosecute criminal offences of inter-regional and international importance - Tasks of police related to criminal prosecution - Protection of members of constitutional organs - Protection of witnesses and their families or close associates The Federal Criminal Police Office works on the basis of a clear legal mandate, defined in the German Constitution and the "BKA Law" (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz) and acts as a central clearinghouse, collecting, exchanging and analyzing information for the state criminal offices. It only undertakes investigation when called upon by the states or the federal interior to do so. The core tasks of the Federal Criminal Police Office are described by the following five functions: function as a central agency, investigative functions, international functions, protection tasks and prevention and administrative functions.
Chart no. 3: Number of police officers of state and federal police services in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 Year Federal states' police police Federal police services-number of services-number of public public police officers officers 2001 225,138 33,749 2003 224,721 34,775 2005 222,578 35,470 2007 219,582 35,718 Source: Own chart following Statistisches Bundesamt, 2007: pp. 107-109 Chart no. 3 illustrates that police powers are mostly vested to the federal states, because most of Germany's police officers are members of the federal states' police staff. The total number of police officers at federal level has increased from 2001 to 2007. Compared with the decreasing number on the federal states' level this may be interpreted as an indicator for the increasing relevance of the federal police services.
Responsibilities of German police services-Implications for management reforms
We identify German police services as part of the executive administration which is characterized by interventions into citizen's right (Wolff et al., 1994: p. 43). The intervention imposes restrictions on citizens affecting their liberty and property as obligations and charges are entailed on them (Dose and Voigt, 1998: p. 95). The intervention is not the essence of the police service in the context of executive administration but the target to reach specified goals based upon administrative law (Lenk, 1998: p. 161), e.g. the sustainment of public order...
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