Albert Bauer is enjoying his last weeks in the police force. He’s in a good mood in his short-sleeved shirt in his office on Ismaninger Leuchtenbergstrasse. At the end of November, the police chief inspector will retire after a total of 44 years with the police.
It all started in 1977. A police officer came to school and promoted the police profession and its possibilities. He talked about helicopters and dog squadrons, a varied profession. That impressed the young Albert Bauer. So he made the decision to become a police officer and should not regret his decision.
After three years of training in Eichstätt, Dachau and Munich, his first stop was Police Inspection 12 in Haidhausen. In 1982 Bauer moved on to today’s PI 21 on Mariahilfplatz. He stayed there for nine years. A visit to the University of Applied Sciences in Fürstenfeldbruck was followed by employment as a group leader in Giesing. In 1998, Bauer switched back to PI 21 and became head of the civilian task force. After another five years he rose to head the disposition group. After a three-year engagement as deputy head of department in Ottobrunn, he finally moved to Ismaning, where he spent the last six years of his career.
In Ismaning, Bauer set himself the goal of maintaining and expanding good contact with communities and associations. According to his own statement, he succeeded in doing this. The security level in the north of Munich is also constantly improving. Although the pandemic is helping to reduce crimes, a sustained positive trend was also discernible beforehand.
The police station in Ismaning is rather small with around 40 officers. As a result, however, a very familiar working atmosphere has developed, says Bauer. This becomes clear when Bauer walks through the office on the way to the photo session: He is allowed to listen to tips on age and hairstyle from several sides. Such experiences are probably due to his relaxed leadership style. With the motto: “But it has to work”, he has been quite successful, he says. The limited number of police forces is not only noticeable in a positive way. According to Bauer, it requires compromises, for example in the area of prevention work, of which Bauer is actually an advocate. In the area of child and youth prevention in particular, efforts have nevertheless been intensified.
Waves of bicycle thefts and floods preoccupied Bauer in his career as well as traffic hooligans and con artists. From his time on civil patrol, he remembered two cases in particular, in which he and his colleague were able to prevent rape. Both times they noticed a man chasing a woman. He will never forget the tragic mission in 2017 in Unterföhring, when a colleague was seriously injured. A man had snatched the gun from a policeman and shot him, the fellow on the strip was hit in the head. “You also see things that you never forget,” says Bauer.
All in all, Albert Bauer looks back on his career with satisfaction. He was very well received in Ismaning at the time and hoped to be remembered by his colleagues. The communities of Ismaning and Unterföhring have grown dear to him. The pronounced personal contact to associations and institutions as well as the traditions differentiated the communities from the big city in a positive way, emphasizes Bauer. When asked whether he would make a different decision in his career today, Bauer ponders for a long time, but finally says no.
Bauer recently became a grandfather and wants to devote himself to sport in retirement. Skiing and motorcycling are among his passions. He already knows his successor, it was his preferred candidate. Bauer advises that the latter should remain human and be interested in his employees. “I am happy to hand over the baton and with a good feeling.”
Bauer will have to prove his organizational talent again in the coming weeks. A large number of appointments, combined with the reduction of overtime, is not that easy to plan. In any case, Bauer got to know the diverse profession that the civil servant once praised at school.