Interview with police inspector Michael Schemke
Mr. Schemke, you yourself held management positions in North Rhine-Westphalia's special units for many years. What is important?
Schemke: The uncompromising will to be brave, fair and smart. You also need to have above-average skills in individual areas. Many things can be trained and optimized. But there are basic requirements that an applicant must meet. They are tested after a medical check in a sophisticated selection process.
What skills are needed?
Schemke: Exceptional physical fitness, height resistance, mental strength, shooting ability and self-defense skills are all part of it. As part of the one-year training course, it can then be determined whether these qualities can be reliably called upon even under great stress. Teamwork and tactical skills play a very important role. Even under the greatest stress, everyone must be able to assess how the goal can still be achieved in the respective situation.
Application numbers are high, but many fail. Does that make you a worse police officer?
Schemke: Absolutely not. There are very different talents. If you don't make it into the special units, don't be sad. It's true that a dream has been shattered for the moment. But there are very different and exciting fields of activity in the police. You'll find the right one.
In 1974, the Conference of Interior Ministers decided to set up special units. Why?
Schemke: It was preceded by an attack by the Palestinian terrorist group "Black September" during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. 17 people died back then. The police were in no way prepared for this. That had to change quickly. It started with the establishment of special task forces. Later, further sub-units were added in the form of mobile task forces, negotiation groups and technical task forces.
The deployment of the special units during the hostage-taking in Gladbeck in 1988 was a fiasco. What lessons have been learned from it?
Schemke: The incredibly long chains of command back then meant that a possible seizure was missed several times. The perpetrators drove through half the country with changing hostages and held press conferences. In the end, the outcome was terrible, with two hostages dead and one police officer killed in an accident. We never got to see the situation in the 54 or so hours. One lesson learned was that events must remain static under all circumstances, i.e. they must remain in place and not shift.
What organizational consequences were drawn?
Schemke: We have shifted decision-making powers to the front in order to be more effective, faster and more responsive. In the event of an emergency access, the person standing at the door sometimes makes the decision. In addition, we now have special police leaders for specific situations. They help with their knowledge and experience. It is hard to imagine chaos like it was back then because police authorities now cooperate across national and international borders. Many things are now standardized.
Are the sub-units interlinked closely enough?
Schemke: I think so. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the special units are docked to the police headquarters in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen, Dortmund, Münster and Bielefeld and the LKA. The sub-units share a building complex at each location and train together in different constellations. Specialists with very specific skills operate in each sub-unit. Supra-regional exercises also take place. It is all about permanent optimization. Every operation is thoroughly debriefed. For me, the annual award ceremony in Selm is always an uplifting feeling when the new members of the special units are ceremoniously welcomed.
The SEK is always a bit in the foreground. Is that fair?
Schemke: For the police, all sub-units are equally important. The media sometimes give the impression that the SEK is the most important unit, because the special task force is often the one that makes the arrest. However, the success of our special units is a shared one. The MEK is made up of well-camouflaged observers and excellent trackers. The negotiators have an uncanny empathy and know exactly how to communicate. And the operatives from the TEG succeed time and again in outwitting serious criminals thanks to their extensive know-how. Digital knowledge is becoming increasingly important in order to put a stop to perpetrators in large and explosive cases.
Must the police leadership counteract a dangerous esprit de corps in the elite force?
Schemke: There have been cases of misconduct in the past. These were absolute exceptions, but we still have to remain sensitive. Ignoring means accepting. No one must or should damage the reputation of the special forces in our democracy.