Basel-Landesians increasingly rely on private security companies
In Baselland, various municipalities are turning to private security companies to ensure peace and order.
A wave of privatization is spreading in the police sector. Based on the new police law of the canton of Basel-Landschaft, more than 80 municipalities there had to decide by the end of February who should ensure peace and order on their territory in the future. The new law provides for a strict separation between the communal and the cantonal police services. In concrete terms, this means: Do the municipalities organize (and pay for) the 24-hour job themselves or do they also draw on cantonal support? The municipality must settle any service agreement with the cantonal police with a lump sum based on the number of inhabitants.
Today, it is apparent that both larger and smaller municipalities in Basel-Landschaft are outsourcing some of their police duties to private security companies. The reason: saving money is the order of the day. This is also the case in the municipality of Münchenstein, which has a population of around 12,000 and, with 8,000 jobs, is also an important employment and business location in the region. In an interview with Swiss television, the mayor of the municipality calculated that he was spending between 5,000 and 10,000 francs less a year by using private security companies.
As elsewhere, the Münchenstein municipal police cannot provide a 24-hour service. Therefore, in the past, additional services were taken over by the cantonal police. But this costs, especially since the canton is working with a new financing model, which, according to Münchenstein, entails massive additional expenses. For this reason, the municipality has been doing without the service of the cantonal police since the end of March.
If the phone rings at the Münchenstein police station, the citizen may be automatically forwarded to a contracted security company. For the time being, this will be a trial until the end of March 2016, according to reports. Then the people of Münchenstein will take stock and assess whether the "partial privatization" of the police service has proved successful. (rs)
(Edited 4/23/2015)
