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BKA logo at an event in Wiesbaden in 2018
Photo: Arne Dedert / DPA
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Hantschke, last year the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) noticed several candidates for commissioners with right-wing extremist lapses.
How can this be explained?
Gerhard Hantschke:
In the last three years we have had a total of six cases at the BKA, five of them from the group of candidates for the detective commissioner.
We reacted immediately and decisively: In five of the six cases, the incidents led to the termination of the employment relationship, in the sixth case, measures under labor law were taken.
SPIEGEL: In
other words, there cannot actually be any candidate for a commissioner with right-wing extremist views in the BKA.
Hantschke:
No procedure can ensure that you know everything about someone - but we do everything we can to identify radical or extremist tendencies in applicants, because such people have no business in the BKA or in the police.
In a multi-stage process, we use certain criteria to check whether an applicant suits us.
In addition to the presentation to a selection committee, in which, among other things, state-political knowledge and the attitude to the free-democratic basic order are asked, we inform ourselves about the applicants in publicly accessible sources in order to find out who has already been noticed on the Internet with sympathy for radical or extremist ideas .
In addition, all employees are security checked again by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution when they are hired and then at regular intervals.
We took the incidents described as an opportunity to ask ourselves: What must we do better?
Especially now that we are hiring a lot of new staff and are experiencing a profound change in our personnel structure.
SPIEGEL:
What do you have to do better?
And what do young professionals have to bring with them in order to be employed by you?
Hantschke:
We have to constantly and more closely
scrutinize
the criteria that are decisive for hiring in order to ensure that we continue to meet our own quality standards in view of the enormous increase in staff.
Trust in the police arises when the police exercise the state monopoly on the use of force with the necessary integrity.
We want mature, open, committed, reliable and responsible people.
We do not want to be a reflection of society as a whole, but of that part of society that clearly stands for the free, democratic constitutional state.
SPIEGEL:
To what extent is it problematic when BKA officials show a closeness to the AfD, for example?
Hantschke:
We are not allowed to ask about the political attitudes of applicants, that would be legally inadmissible.
But: It is crucial that there is not the slightest doubt about the firm anchoring in the free-democratic basic order and our values: We have a high responsibility for the people in our country and we have to - even more than anyone - the values of Embody humanity, democratic participation and the rule of law transparency.
That is the clear benchmark for every applicant.
"The overall picture is and will remain decisive"
SPIEGEL:
How worried are you about finding enough skilled applicants in the future?
A few years ago there was a lot of public criticism because the BKA had lowered the requirements in the spelling test.
That was before the workforce began to grow.
Hantschke:
Every year well over 5,000 young people apply to be candidates for a detective commissioner.
That is far more than we have to fill every year.
So if the key question is: Are we in a situation where we have to take everyone because of the personnel requirements, the answer is very clear: No.
SPIEGEL:
But you are prepared to overlook it when junior police officers have problems with spelling.
Hantschke:
The lowering of the hurdles in the spelling test was highly controversial, I am aware of that.
But I think the decision is right.
The test that we had until four years ago was from 2004, so it was around twelve years old and outdated.
Because anyone who could not correctly spell the dictated words hyacinth and pale green in a fill-in-the-blank, for example, fell through.
Other tested qualities that are far more important for police officers - such as a high level of comprehension and logical thinking skills - could not compensate for a lack of spelling skills.
SPIEGEL:
And that's why you opened the floodgates?
Hantschke:
No.
The overall picture is and will remain decisive.
At the end of our multi-stage selection process, we have to be able to say: Yes, he or she meets our strict requirements and suits us, our set of values and our self-image!
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