Mayor Katja Dörner: "We want a clean and safe city in which citizens and our guests feel comfortable and enjoy spending time. Safety, order and cleanliness not only determine the quality of life, living and spending time in a city, but are also important factors for the local economy. We have therefore developed the current concept in a broad participation and dialog process in which every citizen of Bonn was able to get involved."
City Director Wolfgang Fuchs adds: "The process has resulted in three key areas that we will focus on more closely: The people of Bonn want more presence and visibility from the municipal public order service, stronger intervention against the increasing littering of public spaces and a modern approach to traffic monitoring within the legal framework."
A large number of measures have been derived from these findings in the concept based on individual locations. The most important of these are
1st presence patrol and "Old Town Guides"
The most important measure in the concept is to significantly increase the presence of the municipal public order service in the city. In future, an additional double patrol will be deployed for both the early and late shifts. Unlike the other colleagues on duty, these patrols will not be controlled by the control center to process incoming calls. Instead, they can carry out pre-planned on-call duties at various locations in the city at different times of day.
In addition, the joint checks carried out with the police in the Bad Godesberg district can be extended to the other districts if necessary. Here too, the aim is to enable the public order service to remain on site for longer than is currently possible in most cases.
For example, the concept envisages a permanent presence in the Old Town at weekends in the evening hours, as is already successfully practiced in other large cities. The pilot project is to be realized under the title "Altstadt Guides" with the involvement of the police and private security services. The "Altstadt Guides" will primarily act as moderators on site, but will also be able to call in regular emergency services via the control center or the police if necessary.
2. digitization
In addition to some internal digitalization potential, a pilot project for radar-based monitoring of neuralgic points is to be launched. The aim is to use data protection-compliant, AI-supported software to monitor neuralgic locations (e.g. school playgrounds, drinking fountains). This is intended to reduce the number of unnecessary emergency calls and thus save personnel resources.
3. plainclothes patrols and waste investigation service
Carelessly discarded packaging of all kinds or cigarette butts, broken glass, dog waste and overflowing garbage cans are often the cause of complaints from citizens. Here, too, the city wants to ensure that the likelihood of being discovered when littering carelessly or deliberately illegally increases by increasing the presence of the public order service on the streets and in green spaces. In addition to uniformed officers, plainclothes officers will also be deployed.
Following the successful example of other large cities, the concept also provides for the establishment of a "waste investigation service", which will be deployed directly in the fines office for general administrative offenses. The employees are to independently investigate waste in private and public spaces and thus identify those responsible for littering, dumping waste in private areas or depositing waste on and around recycling islands. This should enable rapid removal at the polluter's expense as well as the immediate initiation of fine proceedings once the investigation has been completed.
4. modern reorientation of traffic monitoring
In order to meet the growing requirements for monitoring stationary traffic (including parking on footpaths or cycle paths, obstructing public transport or the fire and rescue services), the traffic field service is organized in a separate department. The future challenges are defined and described here. This will include, for example, the permanent establishment of a bicycle squadron for traffic monitoring.
In addition, an extension of powers in the sense of a "Traffic Field Service Plus" is to be tested with interested employees in a pilot project. The aim is to train employees to be able to punish everyday regulatory offenses in addition to traffic offenses, such as unleashed dogs or littering.
The concept also envisages increasing the number of staff in the fines office. The additional posts in traffic monitoring decided by the council in connection with parking space concepts have led to a significant increase in fines. Due to the recently tightened catalog of fines by the federal government, there has also been an increase in inquiries and appeals that need to be processed.
Goal: Visible, friendly, consistent and reliable regulatory authority
In addition to concrete measures, the concept formulates key objectives for the actions of the municipal public order service for the first time. The overarching goal is to act as a visible and friendly, but also consistent and reliable public order authority.
Various key objectives have been derived from the overarching objective, which are intended to determine the actions of the regulatory authority in a balanced relationship between preventative and repressive measures. Key objectives have been formulated for the following topics: visibility and presence, consistency and reliability, employee safety and equipment, friendliness and openness, cooperation and communication, digitalization and controlling, training and recruitment, conception and further development.
The procedure
The city has developed the concept in collaboration with various stakeholders, authorities, local politicians, tradespeople and citizens. At the beginning of the multi-stage process, the special features and locations of the respective city districts were discussed at the meetings of the new "Ordnungsamt vor Ort" series. This was followed by a kick-off event with all city administration offices relevant to the concept, the police, Bonnorange, multipliers and associations. The people of Bonn were able to comment on the locations identified in the city area in a digital public participation process. They also had the opportunity to name other locations that should be included in the concept. In expert workshops, profiles were created for each location with specially tailored prevention and intervention measures. On the basis of all the data collected, the citizen services finally developed the present concept.
Job requirements and costs
A total of 20 additional positions are required to implement the concept: 10 for the patrol service, 4 for the waste investigation service, 1 for administrative tasks, 1 as head of the traffic field service and 4 in the fines office. These will cost just under 87,000 euros from 2024, around 1.01 million euros from 2025 and around 1.5 million euros per year from 2026. In addition, 300,000 euros are to be earmarked annually for material costs (vehicles, radios, etc.). The administration expects that around 80 percent of the costs can be refinanced.
Additions from the political consultation are taken up
The Council also decided on a number of additions to the resolution proposal originally submitted by the administration. These include, for example, the development of preventative measures in youth and social work. The city administration will take up the additions and consider them in the implementation and regular further development of the concept.
Interested parties can find the concept in the council information system at https://www.bonn.sitzung-online.de/public/vo020?VOLFDNR=2016372. (opens in a new tab)