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500 policemen involved in eviction of squatters

Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) says that there were only 500 policemen directly involved in the eviction of the squatters from the house in the Mühlfeldgasse in Vienna's 2nd district on Monday.

Published: 31 July 2014 10:35 CEST
500 policemen involved in eviction of squatters
Johanna Mikl-Leitner. Photo: APA (Archiv/Fohringer)

1,000 policemen were there "for other measures in the whole city-zone" she said on Wednesday in national broadcaster ORF's evening news bulletin ZiB 2.

There was broad criticism all over Austria that there were too many police personnel involved, which was widely regarded as disproportionate. Some sources had reported that there were about 1,700 policemen on duty.

Mikl-Leitner added that those 500 policemen were not there all at the same time, but spread throughout the day, between 6:00 am and 9:00 pm.  

The police previously refused to disclose how many personnel were involved. Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger had said on Monday that there were definitely more than 1,000.

Mikl-Leitner defended the police operation saying it was well-planned and that it was not an "easy" operation.

It was expected that there would be "fierce resistance" to the eviction after there had been calls for violent resistance on the Internet, she said. 

If things had escalated, because police had not provided enough personnel, then the force would have been heavily criticised, Mikl-Leitner said.

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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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