Police and emergency services - Strong for you. Strong for Germany.
Article Community & integration
Police and emergency services are on duty 24/7 to protect each and every one of us. Yet they are often hindered in their work, insulted or attacked. With its "Strong for you. Strong for Germany" (Stark für dich. Stark für Deutschland) campaign, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community aims to improve the respect society pays to uniformed police officers and rescue workers.
Campaign logo (Larger version opens in new window) Source: Federal Ministry of the Interior
It is a paradox: Police and emergency services are usually highly respected, and most citizens trust them. Working as a police officer or a firefighter is a childhood dream for many persons. However, some sections of the population often fail to treat police officers and rescue workers with respect, they hinder them in their work or even get violent and attack them. Verbal attacks, insults, but also threats and physical violence have become an everyday reality for rescue workers, firefighters and police officers.
However, to ensure social cohesion and be able to exercise our personal liberties, citizens must be able to know for sure
- that they are safe in Germany,
- that they will receive help when they need it,
- that the state will make use of its monopoly on force to protect them against illegal interference, if necessary.
Strong for you - no matter where you are from
With their actions, our police forces and rescue workers guarantee that this trust is justified. Respecting the rule of law, they act reliably and therefore deserve trust. As provided in the Basic Law, they ensure law and order in order to protect human dignity, freedom and integrity.
The help, they mediate, and they protect us. To them, it does not matter who you are, where you are from or what you believe. This is why their task is so important and valuable for society.
Strengthen the respect
Staff members of the Federal Technical Relief Agency are carrying technical equipment in heavy rainfall (Larger version opens in new window) Source: Federal Ministry of the Interior
With its campaign for uniformed police and emergency services, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community wants to make sure that those who risk their lives for us are treated with more respect. However, the information campaign is also intended to counter the increasing number of attacks on law enforcement and emergency personnel.
To implement the campaign, emotional TV spots have been developed to reach the different target groups, online measures have been taken and posters with striking pictures have been put up in selected cities. These measures do not feature experienced actors, but real law enforcement and emergency personnel. This illustrates how passionate they are about their jobs and what efforts they make every day to protect us.