Many German police officers in Saxony refuse to act as Corona sheriffs

The investigation “Police service in times of crisis” deals, among other things, with the questions of how the security forces experienced their service during the Corona lockdown. According to the study, the Corona measures have gone too far for one in three of the 2323 respondents. Regulations were often unclear and a large part of the population felt the regulations were excessive. Some officials have also openly criticized provisions that “have not infrequently been constitutionally dubious from their point of view”.

The study divided the respondents into three groups depending on their attitude. The largest, at 46 percent, is that of the “uncertain conformists”, who have mixed opinions about the measures but are more willing to monitor compliance. The second group was made up of 32 percent of the “concerned interventionists” for whom the Corona regulations did not go far enough.

They strictly enforced the existing rules privately and on duty. The smallest group consists of 22 percent of the “carefree skeptics”, for whom the measures went too far and who lack the motivation to use controls to ensure compliance with the regulations.

Some police officers expressed concern about the possible consequences of the controls, which were being perceived as disproportionate. They feared that the controls, viewed by the population as disproportionate, could shake “the fragile social trust in the police” and “deepen existing mistrust”.