After SEK mission: Grafinger police officer becomes an author

Created: 04/08/2022 06:03

By: Raphael Scherer

"The stories are purely fictional, but convey a very realistic and authentic picture of the policeman's job": Clemens Ertl with his book.

Every time I hear the bell my heart races.

Clemens Ertl, police officer from Grafing on sick leave.

©RS

Debut author Clemens Ertl writes in his book "Blaustich" about the varied everyday life of law enforcement officers.

Grafing – Clemens Ertl always wanted to experience something.

Ever since he was a child, it was clear to Grafinger: "Just no office job from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.." When he began his training to become a police officer at the age of 20, he knew that this was his: "You see a lot, get around a lot, and meets an unbelievable number of interesting people,” the now 32-year-old enthusiastically describes the job of a patrol officer.

But then came the big bang: in 2017, a colleague made a typo while partying with him and wrote to his girlfriend: "The others drink and tdbzen".

When the cocaine scandal was then pursued in the ranks of the Munich police, the investigators interpreted the typo as "snot", colloquially for "coke", instead of the word "dance", which is probably meant, explains Ertl.

SEK mission in Ertl's home without result

In September 2020, the chief police officer was sitting unsuspectingly in the apartment of his parents, retired teachers in Grafing, when a special task force (SEK) suddenly rang and stormed the apartment with a dozen men.

"They just held the submachine gun to my forehead," Ertl recalls.

"You know you haven't done anything and you're being mugged for no reason," he recalls of how overwhelmed he was with the situation.

The apartment was turned upside down down to the dirty underwear in the basement, and his second apartment in Munich was also turned inside out.

In the end, the officials found nothing.

Even during the physical examinations, they found no evidence of drugs in Ertl's hair, urine and blood samples. Ertl assured the magazine "Der Spiegel" on oath that he had never consumed illegal drugs in his life.

Suspension brings time to write

The Grafinger police chief was suspended from duty until the proceedings were terminated.

Ertl, now officially a traffic cop, has been on sick leave since the SEK raid because of stress symptoms, panic attacks and sleep disorders: "Every time I hear the bell, my heart races, I usually sleep just two hours a night," says Grafinger.

But the suspension also had something good: Ertl had time.

Again and again he and his colleagues told their friends and acquaintances about their experiences in everyday police work.

How surreal, according to Ertl, some situations seem when listening, what fears, tasks and funny or bizarre moments arise and how unrealistic the policeman's job is portrayed in the media, "Keyword: Eberhofer crime stories".

Book brings "realistic and authentic picture of the policeman's profession",

"But everyone just told it, nobody put it down on paper," Ertl stated.

He was amazed that books by crime scene cleaners were flooding the market when there were almost no books about insights into real life police work.

So Ertl used the free time he had gained and wrote.

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Ertl's debut novel "Blaustich - Stories from everyday police life" begins with the training and accompanies the reader in the first-person perspective of a fictitious police officer through twelve years of police experience reports.

"The stories are purely fictional, but convey a very realistic and authentic picture of the policeman's job," Ertl clarifies, after all he doesn't want to violate the duty of confidentiality.

From the NSU trial to the corpses of children: Ertl has seen a lot

After the real training, Ertl started with the operational group, "quasi the riot police in Munich," he explains.

For example, at the NSU process, including demonstrations, the Hoeneß process and the demolition of the camp for rejected asylum seekers at Rindermarkt in 2013, Ertl was there everywhere, right in the middle of the action.

At the beginning of 2014, he came to “Police Inspection 14 Munich-Westend” as a patrolman, where he was primarily deployed around the main station district.

There, too, the Grafinger lived through dozens of incidents: from the arrest of violent hooligans to children who tragically burned to death in houses, drunk visitors to the Oktoberfest who fell on the tracks and were run over by trains or the constant fear of accidentally getting an HIV syringe during searches Infecting positive drug addicts - the chief police officer has experienced a lot.

Blaustich online, available in Ebersberg and Grafing

The Grafinger finally put the last sign in his book in September 2021. At the same time, the author, who describes himself as a "non-reader" and also his work as "suitable for non-readers", found open ears at the Austrian publisher Herramhof.

"But they wanted me to defuse a few spots," Ertl recalls.

Above all, there were too many swear words for the publisher, says Ertl with a shrug and laughs.

In June, Ertl finally had his book in his hands, revised and highly official: "A nice feeling" describes the 32-year-old and strokes the spine of his debut work in the Otter book shop in Ebersberg.

The 248-page book is currently available for 18 euros at www.blaustich.de, with a dedication and signature on request.

It can also be bought in small quantities from Buch Otter in Ebersberg and from Buch Herzog in Grafing.

Ertl doesn't expect any big profits from this, he lets his parents get the few sales as compensation for their apartment, which was destroyed by the SEK.

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