“We prefer it,” says Bernhard Dusch, “if we don’t even have to de-escalate.” Seen in this way, it must have been a highly successful operation on Saturday for the “tactical communications team” that the Bavarian police had deployed around the G-7 summit in Munich and Elmau. The mass of the approximately 6,000 rally participants in Munich behaved absolutely peacefully. And the few who clashed with the emergency services on the sidelines of the demonstration may not have been particularly interested in communication, as understood by the veteran police officer Dusch from the Oberbayern-Süd Presidium in Rosenheim. He assumes that the majority of the demonstrators will remain peaceful, Dusch had predicted in advance – when 20,000 or even more rally participants were still thought of.
The breather for Dusch and his almost 300-strong team was short. Finally, further meetings in Munich were announced for Sunday. However, Dusch himself and the majority of his 140 Bavarian communications officers – reinforced by just as many from other federal states and eight foreign liaison officers, for example from France – rushed to the next operation: the demonstrations that were planned for Sunday and Monday around the site of the G-7 Summit in Elmau were announced. That will be something completely different again, shower suspected on Thursday at a meeting in the Munich police headquarters: completely different location, completely different population. And probably completely different participants in the meeting.
Communications officers are not neutral intermediaries
A new challenge from the point of view of the “de-escalation officials” – that’s what they could be called? Dusch nods vigorously, he likes the term. Although it only describes about 50 percent of the work expected of the team. The communications officers – sometimes mistaken for some sort of mobile police press office – are said to be “proactive in reaching out to demonstrators” and convincing them of the importance of staying peaceful and obeying the rules. If they succeed, there will be a triple benefit, in Dusch’s opinion – for the police, for the participants and for the population.
Admittedly, the communications officials are not neutral mediators either – they are primarily police officers. If they notice a crime, they must prosecute it according to the principle of legality. There is hardly any discretion. However, one could perhaps prevent a criminal offense from occurring in the first place. In a figurative sense: taking the car key away from the drunk before he gets in the car.
So it is a good thing that the communications officers, when there are no demonstrations to accompany, are completely normal patrol or traffic police officers. You know such situations. Like Viktoria Rinke from Lower Franconia, for example. The police superintendent has reported to the communications team because she thinks this is a new and exciting challenge. “If you’re a person who likes to communicate,” then something like that excites you.
Training of officials before the summit
In addition to the training, there was a two-day training session ahead of the G-7 summit. The mission philosophy was explained there and the legal framework was clarified. The police’s central psychological service was also involved in the training. After all, “patience and understanding” (Rinke) are important tools for communication officials.
Because their interlocutors are not only the demonstrators themselves – but also bystanders, passers-by, eyewitnesses. Patience and understanding is sometimes not the case for those who are not only annoyed by road closures. They also sometimes vehemently demand clarification if, for example, they observe how police officers wrestle a person to the ground together. Or when, like on Saturday, the batons are unpacked and helmeted police officers in black protective gear tackle, push and push back groups of people.
Despite such pictures, despite mobile phone videos that are circulating on the internet after operations like the one on Saturday and are causing a lot of critical questions for the Munich police’s social media team, Dusch is convinced: “The trust in the police and our work is still very big.” The next sign of trust is already to be provided on Sunday between Wetterstein and Loisach.