Unions have a cliché of being a bit old-fashioned, which also has something to do with front-line staff. The bosses are almost always in their mid-50s or early 60s (there are hardly any female bosses to this day), because it usually takes a long time for someone to work their way up the complex structures of employee representation. In this respect, it is quite remarkable what happened in Berlin: The police union (GdP) elected Jochen Kopelke, a police officer from Bremen, as chairman. Kopelke is 38 years old and could easily be the son of Jörg Hofmann (IG Metall, 66) or Klaus-Dieter Hommel (EVG, 65), the bosses of other unions with whom he will deal in the future.
Kopelke, who started with the police in 2005 and worked his way up from the riot police officer to the state criminal investigation office and police chief, is well aware of the age issue. He wants to bring “a lot of momentum” to the committees in which he now sits, he says on the phone, and he thinks it’s important “that a younger face speaks for the police officers.” After all, many of them, like him, are in the middle of their years of service.
Kopelke should make the GdP more visible to the outside world
With the public effect, it’s a thing at the GdP anyway, which is by far the largest police union in Germany with around 200,000 members. The previous boss Oliver Malchow was little present, which also has to do with a serious illness. Malchow almost died of a heart attack in 2015, he has been living with an artificial heart ever since and is stepping down. Appearances or interviews were often taken over by his deputies. Many trade unionists expect Kopelke to make the GdP more visible to the outside world.
He can certainly be trusted to succeed. He knows the trades of the GdP well, was head of the Bremen state district and the youth organization there. In politics he is considered to be well connected, he most recently headed the office of Bremen’s Senator for the Interior, Ulrich Mäurer (SPD). Kopelke can explain well what he wants to enforce as the new GdP boss for the police officers. Let’s take, for example, a demo in Saxony: “When hundreds of people from different federal states come together to accompany the event, they all do the same work. But they don’t earn the same money,” criticizes Kopelke. “We need nationwide uniform salary levels and higher supplements for working nights and weekends.”
A Bremen man through and through
The new boss wants to standardize something else: “We need a common digital strategy.” Depending on the federal state and authority, the officials are equipped differently, some with new tablets, others with pens and notepads. Some could work well from the road, others would first have to drive to the station to type their reports there. The police, Kopelke demands, must become a more attractive employer, otherwise the personnel problems will worsen. He hears more and more often from colleagues who quit after a few years of service – even if there are no official figures. Kopelke finds it important to deal with the right-wing extremism scandals that have shaken the police force in recent years. However, it should not result in blanket prejudice against all police officers. There is no place for racism in his union – this is shown by the incompatibility decision that the GdP passed in 2021: AfD members have not been tolerated since then.
Kopelke is from Bremen through and through. He lives with his wife and two small children in the Findorff district and is a season ticket holder at SV Werder, where, as he says, he likes to eat a fish sandwich at half-time. And what is the name of a police officer from Bremen on Twitter and Instagram? Of course: Hansecop.