district of Wesel.
Ulrich Kühn establishes himself with the police in the district of Wesel. Where he comes from and what challenges his predecessor sees.
Anyone who moves has to get settled first: last week Ulrich Kühn moved into his new office on Reeser Landstrasse. As the new department head of the Wesel district police authority, he has a full program ahead of him: visits to the police stations and district courts as well as to the mayors, the district control center invited him.
The man from Duisburg studied law after graduating from high school and entered the higher police service as a qualified lawyer in 1995. He already knows the Wesel district from his time as head of the Dinslaken police station, where he worked between 1997 and 2003. “I’m looking forward to getting back into practice from theory and taking on responsibility for the operational police service again,” he says.
Cyber attacks remain an issue: “So far, this has been warded off”
The theory because he was most recently responsible for management at the State Office for Central Police Services (LZPD) in the areas of consulting with authorities, strategy development and change management, “in a manner of speaking at the management consultancy of the police. This gave me a broad overview of the country,” says Kühn. Strategic questions were in the foreground: How can an authority position itself better? How are changes implemented and moderated? In this context, he was also concerned with the topic of clan crime and the debate about right-wing extremist chat groups in the Ruhr area. What do operations do with the officers? If this is not reflected, then this could go in the wrong direction. In this context, he considers everyday reflection to be the approach to a solution, and the police chaplains in the district are also involved in this regard.
Most recently, the 58-year-old was also head of the nationwide staff unit that dealt with the issue of “critical infrastructure” in the course of the war in Ukraine. The police had to react, for example because of the cyber attacks. The citizens don’t get that, “so far every attack has been repelled”. The Wesel authority considers Kühn to be well positioned in this regard.
Criminal Police Office 15 has been on duty in the district of Wesel since last September to deal with cybercrime. “A field of activity that also affects the citizens in particular,” says Kühn. The scammers used to come to the front door, now they use the virtual space. “That requires experts.” The police had to upgrade heavily, IT experts were hired, for example.
Change at the Wesel district police: what challenges Rüdiger Kunst sees
Ulrich Kühn comes from the LZPD in Duisburg, his predecessor Rüdiger Kunst is now moving there. After almost 44 years, his time as an active police officer is over, but in the next two years Kunst will contribute his experience in the field of quality management for police authorities throughout NRW.
Due to the increased demands, young people are also needed to meet them, he believes. Politicians must ensure that the police also have continuity in terms of personnel, i.e. that the number of hires remains high in the long term.
What other challenges does he see for the police in the future? In his perception, Corona has done something to people, aggressiveness has increased. It often doesn’t stay with discussions, but leads to attacks against officials, “if a knife is regularly there, that scares me”. His concern: “That the police officers always come home healthy.” In the area of transport, Rüdiger Kunst is also concerned about the bicycle and pedelec modes of transport and the recent increase in the number of accidents. In addition, he names the crimes against older people – when fraudsters perfidiously gain trust in order to get money.
Stress on the police officers: “We have it well under control”
Only in the past few days has someone in the district been cheated again – by 30,000 euros. At least part of the money could be saved, says Kühn. “Awareness is very important there.” With a view to the strain on the officers, Kühn found after particularly difficult operations that the officers were surprisingly stable. He attributes this to the training and psychosocial support provided by the police. “With these instruments we have it well under control.”
More articles from this category can be found here: Kreis Wesel
