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Walking the beat together on the German-Polish beach

German-Polish police cooperation is being further expanded: the German island of Usedom has its own squad and its own police station.

03.09.2024
The German-Polish police station in Świecko
The German-Polish police station in Świecko © pictureAlliance/dpa

Adam Raczek? Anyone who tunes into the ARD TV channel in Germany on Sunday evenings will surely be familiar with the series “Polizeiruf 110” and Germany’s most popular Polish police superintendent. Played by Lucas Gregorowicz, he appeared alongside German colleagues in twelve episodes between 2015 and 2022, investigating crimes on both sides of the German-Polish border. Agnieszka Sztylka, Maximilian Will, Katarzyna Swiecicka, Grzegorz Krajewski, Olivia Scholz? By contrast, the names of the German and Polish police officers who have been carrying out joint patrols on the holiday island of Usedom since the beginning of June 2024 will only be known to those they have been able to help locally. Or to those they have been able to convict of some crime or another.

How it all started: training for officers from the German-Polish police station on Usedom
How it all started: training for officers from the German-Polish police station on Usedom © pictureAlliance/dpa

“We are very proud to be now breathing life into this unique project for our country. With immediate effect, three German and three Polish police officers will be jointly taking care of accidents, burglaries and traffic checks on both the German and Polish sides of Usedom,” said Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Interior Affairs Minister Christian Pegel in Ahlbeck ahead of the first patrol. That is where the headquarters of the Neubrandenburg police and of the Szczecin Voivodeship police have their joint police station.

It’s not only German and Polish that the officers have to learn

Though joint patrols have occasionally taken place for some time, it is only now that the police officers go out on the beat together every day. This is by no means a first when it comes to German-Polish police cooperation. The German-Polish team in Guben/Gubin in Brandenburg served as the role model. Training that is carried out there, for example on the differences between the narcotics, weapons and traffic laws in the two countries, has now been adopted for the new joint police force. 

Usedom: jointly patrolled by German-Polish police
Usedom: jointly patrolled by German-Polish police © pictureAlliance/dpa

There has long been a plan for the police and customs officers of the two countries to be able to respond jointly and quickly on a cross-border basis. This plan began to be put into practice in 2007 when the joint German-Polish police station was set up in Świecko near Slubice. That’s also where TV Superintendent Adam Raczek “worked”. The police there perform all the usual duties - but do so on a cross-border basis. 44 German and 25 Polish police, border patrol and customs officers are managed by one German and one Polish coordinator. Incidentally, this pioneering approach in Świecko is being implemented throughout Europe. There are now more than 50 similar police stations in the Schengen area. (with dpa / rbb)