Vienna pulls police officers from other federal states for reinforcement

Justification from the Ministry of the Interior

The Rapid Response Forces are a police unit designed to respond quickly to security situations. They are typically deployed for operations at demonstrations, major events, or in acute threat situations.

The State Police Directorate of Styria is among those directorates that have increasingly provided personnel to other federal states in recent years. The procedure that has now come to light is part of a series of similar requests from Vienna and Vorarlberg.

The State Police Directorates of Upper Austria, Burgenland, and Lower Austria are also involved in the secondments, according to APA information. This means executive officers from at least five federal states are being drawn upon for the reinforcement in Vienna and Vorarlberg.

Federal states at a glance

The Ministry of the Interior justifies the cross-regional assistance with the need to compensate for bottlenecks in station duty at short notice. Without the assignment of officers from other federal states, individual police stations would not be able to ensure minimum staffing levels.

Individuals close to the Ministry of the Interior pointed out that personnel reserves in several State Police Directorates have been under pressure for years. A sustainable increase through new hires has been announced but cannot compensate for short-term bottlenecks.

Walter Strallhofer, who as a high-ranking officer is involved in the communication of the measure, has not publicly commented on the specific number of seconded executive officers. The Ministry of the Interior also did not provide any figures on request.

Open questions and duration of the measure

According to APA information, the assignment is initially limited to a few months. An extension is possible if the personnel situation at Vienna's police stations has not eased by then.

Regarding the question of the extent to which youth crime in Vienna currently contributes to the burden on police stations, no figures were cited according to APA. "Zahlen zur aktuellen Situation im Bereich Jugendkriminalität wurden nicht genannt", the reporting states.

Overall, the cross-regional assistance illustrates how strained the personnel situation is for the police in several Austrian federal states. At the same time, it raises questions about the long-term strategy of the Ministry of the Interior to permanently improve the personnel situation at police stations.