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Graz man impersonates cops in his Porsche

A German traveling on the Inntalautobahn in his Porsche Cayenne called the police when he was trailed by another Porsche Cayenne with a blue flashing light.

Published: 5 January 2015 15:20 CET
Graz man impersonates cops in his Porsche
Porsche Cayenne Turbo. Photo: 3268zauber/Wikimedia
Normally, the correct procedure when you see a blue flashing light in your mirror is to pull over, however something seemed off about this 'police car'.
 
For a start, most police personnel aren't given Porsche Cayennes to drive — and secondly, if they do, it's unlikely that they have a luggage box sitting on their roof.
 
When police caught up with the Styrian fake cop in the town of Wörgl, they discovered a 51-year-old Graz man, who admitted that he had installed the blue light so that he could avoid being delayed by motorists who were in his opinion traveling too slow.
 
The impatient Grazer now faces several charges, including impersonating a police officer and coercion.

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POLICE

Why are Vienna’s police officers trying to get away from the capital?

Austria's Ministry of Interior is grappling with a surge in police transfer requests from Vienna. Police unions have warned the situation is worsening morale and contributing to staffing shortages.

Published: 3 September 2024 16:53 CEST
Why are Vienna's police officers trying to get away from the capital?

A growing number of police officers in Vienna are applying for transfers to other federal states, but lengthy waiting times have frustrated many. 

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), 580 civil servants in Vienna have submitted transfer requests, for a total of 799 across Austria. Despite these applications, the waiting list is long, and it can take several years, or even more than a decade, for a transfer to be approved.

Newspaper Kurier reported on one such case. Alex M (the officer asked to remain anonymous, the report said) is a Vienna police officer waiting 13 years to transfer to another state. M. initially applied for a transfer to Lower Austria but also to a second federal state without success. “Every year, you only move up a few places. It’s very gruelling,” he told the newspaper.

READ ALSO: How Austria wants to attract more police officers

Why are officers ‘fleeing’?

Kurier said the primary reason for M.’s desire to transfer is the overwhelming amount of overtime required in Vienna, a complaint voiced by other officers. Police officers in the capital logged over 2.2 million overtime hours last year alone, with some, like M., working up to 140 extra hours per month, Kurier said. 

Most police officers in Vienna come from other federal states, and many wish to return to their home regions after a few years of service. However, the high number of transfer requests and the limited availability of positions in other states mean that only a few requests are approved yearly.

‘It’s important to come clean’

Police unions have expressed concerns about the impact of these long waits on morale and the broader staffing crisis in Vienna.

Walter Strallhofer, a police unionist, criticised the unrealistic expectations set during recruitment. “Police students from the federal states are promised during recruitment that they will soon be able to leave Vienna. But that’s not true. It’s important to come clean with people. When you come to Vienna, you stay here for at least the next ten years.”, he said.

READ ALSO: When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Exceptions to the long wait times are made only in cases of social hardship, such as serious illness of family members. 

The BMI is exploring options to speed up the transfer process, including adjusting admission quotas to accommodate more officers from states with high transfer request numbers.

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