What's next in justice? - New Attorney General open to more centralisation
From the perspective of Saxony-Anhalt's new General Prosecutor Heike Geyer, more responsibilities within the judiciary in the state could be centralized. Up until now, the General Prosecutor's Office has only handled state security cases, Geyer told the "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung". "There are more areas that could be centralized and potentially also housed at the General Prosecutor's Office, such as larger cybercrime cases or cases of fraud in the healthcare system."
The lawyer said that the prosecution offices also need more IT expertise. To achieve this, we might need to hire additional non-legal staff. "But that's more relevant for the police, as that's where the actual investigative work takes place."
Geyer, who has been General Prosecutor in Naumburg since early July, added: "Often, there just aren't enough police officers for all the different tasks. I've been critical of the police's staff reduction for a long time. In recent years, they've started to increase staff numbers and training capacities. But ultimately, we still have problems, partly because the young officers naturally lack experience."
Before taking up her current post, Heike Geyer headed the Halle prosecution office from 2017 and established a central unit there to combat online hate crime.
The police could benefit from the additional non-legal staff suggested by the lawyer to enhance their IT capabilities, as they primarily handle the investigative work in larger cybercrime cases. Despite the recent increase in staff numbers and training capacities within the police force, Geyer has continued to express concerns about the insufficient number of police officers to carry out various tasks due to a lack of experience.
