Bavarian cops have released a video mocking a shortage of uniforms
The Bavarian chapter of the German Police Union (DPolG) has released a video showing officers without pants to express frustration over a shortage of uniforms.
In the clip, which was shared on social media on Monday, two officers have a brief conversation in their patrol car. “So, how long have you been waiting?” One says four months, the other six, before getting out of their BMW to reveal that they are pantless.
Although the video was released on April Fool’s Day, it was not joke, but an attempt to draw attention to the severe uniform shortage, the chairman of the Bavarian branch of the DPolG, Jurgen Kohnlein, who also appears in the video, explained.
“We have now reached the point where our colleagues can no longer move out adequately – in other words: with a decent uniform,” he said.
According to him, Bavarian police officers have been dealing with uniform shortages due to supply chain bottlenecks since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Bavaria’s police are ‘stripping bare’ and could literally be left standing without pants,” Kohnlein said, highlighting the fact that the waiting time for more than 20 different items, including hats, jackets, and pants, can take months if they are available at all. He added that in many cases, officers have to work in their last pair of pants.
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The union has urged the German Interior Ministry to address the problem immediately, even if it means additional costs, stressing that since 2020, they have “hardly been talking about shortcomings in the quality of uniforms, but rather a shortage in the availability of uniforms.”
This is not the first time the police union has publicly complained about uniform issues. According to local media, in 2020, the Bavarian Interior Ministry registered hundreds of complaints about uniforms that are of low quality and do not fit well.
