Introduced to the pandemic, the security service at the district office in Neustadt is still in action. His main task: to enforce the appointment obligation. Not everyone likes that.
At the district office on Stadtstrasse in Freiburg, the security service has long been part of normality, in the branch office in Neustadt it has only been there since the beginning of the pandemic. He always gets frustrated here. The source of resentment, however, is often not security, but the obligation for citizens to make appointments.
The security service as a reception committee
“What, are you still there?” – a sentence that Roberto Spano often hears instead of a greeting. He is a security guard at the gate of the district office on the Allmend. Here he is sitting at a small table behind the entrance and comes towards you when he sees someone heading towards the district office.
“Do you have an appointment?” he asks the visitors. If the answer is yes, he opens the door and describes the way to the right room. He also runs behind if someone takes a wrong turn and points them in the right direction.
“It often happens that people who don’t have an appointment get upset” Robert Spano
His duties are reminiscent of those of a porter: “Most of the time I’m just the receptionist here,” he says. “I greet people, point them to the notice boards or give them the correct room numbers.” He has also helped to put a new number plate on the car or make an appointment.
In addition, he says, the employees tell him that they feel safer with the security in the building. It doesn’t happen often that he has to intervene, but now and then someone gets loud or aggressive; for example in custody disputes. The police were then called earlier. On-site security can intervene more quickly.
Spano says that just being in the room often defuses situations. And yet: He regularly has to send people away who have not made an appointment – and also allow themselves to be pummeled again and again.
District office sees more effective work processes through appointment obligation
The obligation to make an appointment is a remnant of the Corona requirements. At that time it was introduced in order to be able to better control how many visitors are in the building at any time, reports the spokesman for the district office, Matthias Fetterer. It turned out that this made a more effective workflow possible. The district office kept the obligation to make an appointment.
“It often happens that people who don’t have an appointment get upset,” says Spano. He is a little surprised: “Actually, it’s been like this for three years.” For example, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you need an appointment to register a vehicle. People would often tell him that other district offices in the area no longer had to make appointments.
“The Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district office is of the opinion that it’s still worth having us here,” says Spano, “so I’m here.” The contracts with the security company Echo are always temporary, he reports. According to Fetterer, a change in the incoming inspections is currently being examined. However, there are no firm plans for this yet – so the guards will remain at the district office for the time being.
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