The night in police custody is now becoming expensive

Anyone who gets into a conflict with the police in Hamburg now has to pay for it - at least if they are taken into custody. At the beginning of the new year, the police introduced charges for detention. The first fee notices of this kind could thus be sent to the determined rioters on New Year's Eve.

And that can quickly become expensive. If you take the example of the 16-year-old who was taken into custody in Neuwiedenthal early on New Year's morning after he fired a blank pistol, at least 112 euros would be due. Fees are incurred in Hamburg for detention for the arrival and departure, for the police officers deployed and for accommodation in a cell.

Arrivals and departures cost one euro per kilometer with a normal patrol car. For example, if a Bulli is used, it becomes more expensive. Stubbenhof Street, where the riots in Neuwiedenthal were concentrated on New Year's Eve, is about three kilometers from the nearest police station, the PK 47, which means six euros for the fees, assuming that a simple patrol car was enough to drive the youth to the police station.

EUR 33.20 per half hour or part thereof is due for each police officer deployed. With the usual two officers per car, that makes 66.40 euros even with a short calculation. In addition, there is the stay in the cell, which costs 40 euros if the detainee stays less than six hours. Each additional hour costs 6.20 euros.

So far, in the Hanseatic city, you only had to fear payment of money in the event of arrest if you had soiled or demolished the patrol car or the detention cell, or if police officers had been injured during the operation. "Insofar as costs could be asserted by way of claims for damages, this has already happened in the past," said a police spokesman at the request of WELT.

With its new fees, Hamburg is now one of nine German states, according to the police, in which those responsible have to pay for the costs of their detention. The Federal Police also collects the fees.

When the Federal Ministry of the Interior made the introduction public in 2019, it sparked a discussion. In addition to the criticism that one of the sovereign tasks of the state is to ensure law and order and that the police should not have these tasks paid for by private parties, the issue was, among other things, that detention happened without the rule of law has established guilt. Paying for it anyway is not fair.

However, courts regularly confirm the legality of the fees – at least if the detention itself was not illegal. Dennis Gladiator, spokesman for domestic affairs for the CDU parliamentary group in the Hamburg Parliament, also sees the fees as a tried and tested means. "In the past, fees for police detention were raised as part of claims for damages," he said at the request of WELT.

Arrests served the safety of all Hamburg residents and protected the public from potential criminals. "It is correct that those responsible bear the costs incurred for this." Against the background of the required effort, he considers the fees in this area to be appropriate.

And the Hamburg police also take a sober view of the matter. According to the spokesman, one regularly checks for which services that are billable under the law one could charge fees and whether the effort is in a favorable relationship to the expected proceeds. Incidentally, this is estimated at around one million euros a year.