German journalists often visit the Frankfurt/Świecko border crossing to see the situation on the border – open and friendly to citizens of both countries for the first time in history.
That is how the functioning of the Centre is evaluated by German media:
The day before Schengen
On 20 December 2007, a few hours before borders removal, Federal Minister of Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) and his Polish counterpart Grzegorz Schetyna offcially opened the Cooperation Centre. The Centre is situated on the Polish side of the border, at the end of the German highway A12 and gathers the following units: Bundespolizei (Federal Police), Landespolizei from Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Sachsen, Polish Police from Gorzów, Polish Border Guards and customs services form Poland and Germany. There are also representatives of three National Criminal Offices. Together, 39 German and 24 Polish officers representing eight services work in the Centre: 21 federal police officers, 2 German customs officers, 14 police officers from Brandenburg and one police officer both form Sachsen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Polish staff members are: ten Border Guards officers, seven police officers and seven customs officer. All officers speak both languages.
This centre was created based on the German-French Centre for Police and Customs Cooperation in Kehl.
Officers' work is not so spectacular here. Nobody rushes to reach the place of incident. No handcuffs, no piles of intercepted trafficked goods.
At noon
But joint effort for common security is bringing its fruits everyday.
12.00: A call to Criminal Police in Peine (Sachsen). Last night at about 11 pm a car(Audi Q worth 80.000 euro) was stolen in Peine. Thanks to the GPS system, police ascertained that thieves were going by this car to Poland. Criminal Police in Peine asks their colleagues for help in the searching for the stolen car.
After the call from Peine Polish police immediately begins searches: in the afternoon the car is found parked bby a restaurant at about 40 km from Wrocław. The driver is arrested and the owner given back the car a few days later.
- Currently situation reports made by the Polish and German services are transferred to the other party - sais Albert Meurer, German services coordinator at PNCW.
officers of all services are gathered in the same room, at an oval table. They work with the use of e-mail, telephone, have contact with translators. The TV broadcasting news is on. There are no linguistic problems.
Here the language is not an obstacle
Almost all officers speak both languages, moreover we have officers who work as intepreters. Here the language is not an obstacle. – assures Albert Maurer – This is the advantages of the Centre.
Questions from police units of both countries are answered 24h/24 by e-mail of fax. In urgent cases, the answer is given in less than an hour. This is quicker than before. Apart form answers to questions, the Centre helps coordinate actions and joint pursuit of offenders, as well as readmission of persons staying illegally.
The Centre has already had success. Already at the turn of 2007 they managed to prevent illegal entry of some Tchetchen groups - 71 people. What is more, thanks to information from the German police, a few stolen cars were intercepted in Poland.
Under the same roof
"Police cooperation is great” said the head of the Brandenburg CDU fraction szef Thomas Lunacek after he had visited the Centre. Although border controls were lifted, there is no threat to public safety. Also the President of the Board of Police in Frankfurt Arne Feuring said that from December 2007 "the criminality level has not changed in any significant way". However, a more in-depth analysis will be possible no sooner than after six months.
Since German and Polish police services have begun working together and all the staff speaks both German and Polish, cooperation is more effective, especially when it comes to searches. – adds Albert Maurer – Communication ways are short, there is direct information exchange and transfer.
Bodo Kaping, Director of the Federal Police Office in Frankfurt/O says that thanks to the centre it is easier to detect offences:
- The chance of detecting offenders is the same as before Schengen because of a great number of police officers in border areas.
Source:
Information based on articles from the German press. Translation into Polish - Danuta Łazarczyk.
Links to articles:
website text version - WAI
