“Police call 110: The fat man loves”
Alcoholic and inspector – is that realistic?
Commissioner Koitzsch (Peter Kurth) at his appointment with the police addiction counselor
© MDR/filmpool fiction/Felix Abraham
“Polizeiruf 110” Commissioner Koitzsch makes no secret of his alcohol addiction. How do the real police deal with affected colleagues?
Right at the beginning of the most recent “In the “Police Call 110” episode from Halle (Saale), the not exactly small alcohol problem of Chief Inspector Henry Koitzsch (Peter Kurth, 67) is brought into the center of the action. After a drunken drive through the city’s concrete canyons, he loses his driver’s license and has to get it to carry out his investigations by taxi or tram.
In the inside pocket of his battered leather jacket is a hip flask filled with hard liquor, which he sometimes uses in the middle of questioning witnesses as if it were the most normal thing in the world. During the crisis discussion with the official addiction counselor, he appears to be aware of the problem and confidently quotes from Jack London’s (1876-1916) classic admonition “King Alcohol”.
New awareness of the problem among police authorities
Even if it is usually less obvious in reality, the widespread problem of alcoholism naturally also plays a significant role in the police authorities. After the problem of addictions was ignored within the company’s ranks for a long time or not addressed due to a lack of support concepts, the company was founded in 1990 “Federal Working Group on Addiction Help in the Police”to establish the basis for caring for alcoholic colleagues. Members of this working group are police employees, those affected and experts from various scientific disciplines such as medicine, education, psychology and social work.
One Report from “Spiegel” At the time, it was assumed that around five percent of police officers in the Federal Republic were addicted to alcohol. Even if there are only a few current figures, everything indicates that the problem has by no means disappeared. As the “Berliner Zeitung” reporteda study by the Free University of Berlin in 2016 showed that around 25.5 percent of Berlin police officers reported at least some risky alcohol consumption.
Special therapies for law enforcement officers
Not least thanks to the work of “BAG Addiction”, a changed awareness of the problem and structured health management have prevailed among police authorities over the past decades. At special training courses, supervisors receive precise instructions on how to deal with affected colleagues and disciplinary principles. As soon as the problem has been identified, those affected are provided with standard therapy options, some of which are specifically tailored to police officers and other emergency services.
An important starting point here is this Paracelsus Berghof Clinic in Bad Essen in Lower Saxony, who always takes into account the special stresses that the police job entails in her treatments. On the website Dr. Peter Subkowski, former chief physician at the clinic, said: “According to our clinical experience with patients from the police sector, police officers are exposed to increasing psychological stress in their work. This is not just about traumatizing experiences or confrontation with violence and the risk of death, but also about the increasing staff shortage.”
“Obligation to maintain fitness for service”
The provisions laid down in the Federal Civil Servants Act (BBG) result in an obligation for law enforcement officers affected by alcohol problems to cooperate with such therapy offers. Although alcoholism itself is not an official offense, the impairment of service caused by alcohol abuse is. Like that Trade union magazine “German Police” As stated in a 2009 issue on the main topic of “Alcohol and Service”, the general duty of loyalty of civil servants also results in an obligation to maintain the ability to serve.
“This obligation to maintain fitness for duty,” it says there, “includes the obligation to keep oneself healthy and productive (duty to maintain health) and, subsequently or in connection with this, also the obligation to restore health.” Anyone who refuses counseling or therapy will face disciplinary consequences, which can result in their removal from public service.