The city parliament not only wants to have a say in the number of jobs, but also in the priorities of the city police. The planned expansion by 152 jobs by 2030 should have a hard time.
In the Stadelhofen and Utoquai area, large-scale operations by the Zurich city police are often required.
In recent years, the number of police officers in the city of Zurich has only increased by two percent – although not only have additional tasks been added, but the population has also increased rapidly. If you just want to keep up with the development of Zurich’s population, you will need 152 additional full-time positions by 2030, divided into 140 police stations and 12 civil “support stations”. This is in a report requested by the local council.
maintain a «safety level»
In order to be able to maintain the “security level” in the city, these places are absolutely necessary, it is said. The positions are to be created in stages, initially ten in 2022 and then seventeen in each of the following years. The city council “approved” the report, but the situation at the municipal council was a little more complicated: the AL wanted to “reject it”, the Greens were divided, and the SP, together with the GLP, wanted to halve the planned number of jobs and the target new police officers at cyber crime, hate crime and auto posers.
The municipal council had already flexed its muscles in the budget debate last December: At the time, it removed the money for the first ten additional posts from the estimate – to the chagrin of the citizens, who considered the need for the additional police forces to be proven.
As Commission President, Andreas Egli (FDP) cited numerous other reasons that made it necessary to increase the corps, such as the increased threat of terrorism, the “eventitis” in Zurich and the increase in demonstrations of all kinds, which turned into an actual “demo mania”. would have grown. Also, many medical operations today could only take place under police protection. Further resources would also be needed due to increasing digitization, said Egli.
Michael Schmid from the AL represented the opposite position: The so-called police density, i.e. the ratio of police stations to the population, is the highest in Switzerland today in Zurich. The corps in Basel and Geneva would have far fewer police officers per inhabitant and would still have to take on additional tasks related to the national border.
The city council uncritically accepted the view of the police leadership, said Schmid. In addition to the technical considerations, there is also a need for political considerations. Many conflicts could be resolved by means other than the police. There is therefore no need to increase the number of police stations. Yves Henz (Greens) put it bluntly: “We don’t want a police state.”
Rare coalition from SP to SVP
SP and GLP attempted a compromise with the help of a postulate. At least half of the positions applied for are to be approved by 2026. This gives the police planning security, said Patrick Hässig (GLP). Hässig did not accept the criticism that the postulate prescribed too much detail for the police in which areas they should deploy additional resources. These are precisely the issues that are also mentioned in the report.
Markus Knauss (Greens) reminded the council members that no new jobs would be created at the moment. It’s just a matter of taking note of the report. A decision will only be made during the budget debate. He also said that part of the Greens group would only “disapprove” the report.
Stephan Iten (SVP) was shocked by AL’s reasoning. There the word is clearly spoken for anarchy. If the police say more people are needed, then you should just accept it. “We don’t want a police state, we simply demand security for the people of Zurich.” In terms of planning security, he then spoke, somewhat surprisingly, in favor of the compromise variant of SP and GLP. One only wishes that the city council should examine the matter again.
City councilor Karin Rykart (Greens) tried again to convince the council of the need for the additional positions. The burden has increased to such an extent that the police officers can no longer take the free weekends to which they are entitled and can no longer compensate for the overtime. More jobs and optimized use are needed, as is currently being examined.
Nevertheless, the majority of the Council voted 59 to 53 in favor of the compromise postulate – which does not mean too much. At the end of the year, the cards are likely to be reshuffled.