Citizens' Campus: Thuringia Police - in the field of tension between mission, politics, media, law and ideology

The police have a wide range of tasks. Among other things, it is responsible for general hazard prevention, investigating crimes, documenting traffic accidents, checking suspicious persons, accompanying demonstrations or soccer matches. On the one hand, it is responsible for the so-called monopoly on the use of force, while on the other hand it is seen as a "friend and helper" and the first point of contact for citizens.

Society's great trust in the police is the basis for the police's performance of their duties, but people's view of the police is differentiated. For some, the police are too inconsistent when it comes to upholding the law. For another group, the police have a structural problem of racism or discrimination. Yet another group sees the police as politically instrumentalized, which is accompanied by a loss of trust in the police in view of the crisis of confidence in politics.

Chief Police Director Jürgen Loyen outlines the conflicting expectations of the police using various facts and examples. His many years of service as head of the Gotha, Suhl and Erfurt police authorities, as head of the Operations Department at the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and currently as head of the police training facilities will stand him in good stead.

Mr. Loyen has lived in Ilmenau since moving from the North Rhine-Westphalian police force to the Thuringian police force in 1992. He began his service in the former Arnstadt police station, which he took over as head in 1995.

Admission: 5 Euro