Preventing Problems Before They Occur: Introduction to Lübeck’s Municipal Prevention Council and Working Groups

The Municipal Prevention Council (KPR) has existed in Lübeck since 1992, when it was founded under the name “Criminal Prevention Council”. This has now been restructured and began its work in a different organizational form with the constitutive meeting in May 2022. The KPR works preventively (eg in contrast to the security partnership), which means that an attempt is made to prevent problems before they arise with the help of analyzes and various measures.

Topics that the KPR deals with

• health-promoting measures
• violence prevention
• Competent and responsible use of media
• Addiction prevention for children and young people
• extremism prevention
• Crime prevention and security in public spaces
• Delinquency Reduction

For this purpose, 5 working groups were formed, which deal with different subject areas. The working groups accept topics from the steering group or set their own priorities with regard to their respective professional responsibilities. They develop solutions and give recommendations for action. In addition, they ensure the professional exchange and a professional orientation within their work assignment, but also beyond the KPR with activists, clubs, associations, institutions.

The 5 working groups

• WG safety in public space
• Working group on prevention in children and adolescents
• AG Domestic Violence
• AG crime-related prevention
• WG Living Democracy – Shaping Diversity

A steering group is superordinate to the working groups. Local government, federal and state authorities (police, district court, lower school supervisory authority, Ministry of the Interior, employment agency and job center) work together in this. This steering group deals with current situations and problem situations and passes on processing orders to the working groups. It receives reports from the working groups and presents them thematic connections (e.g. crimes typical of young people and public space) It also does public relations work and reports annually to the citizenship and/or committees.