By Thomas Mücke (Violence Prevention Network)

Background: An extremist-motivated attack highlights the fact that highly radicalised, violence-prone individuals pose a significant risk to our democratic society. This once again underscores the importance of security measures and initiatives aimed at prevention and disengagement. Following the terrorist attack in Berlin, numerous proposals are being discussed on how to improve threat prevention and tertiary prevention, particularly in dealing with high-risk individuals. A key focus is on how to ensure a smooth and efficient exchange of information between security authorities and other state and civil society actors. In this regard, we recommend the establishment of a nationwide commission of experts, comprising academic security experts, security authorities and stakeholders involved in deradicalisation work, to develop detailed proposals in the short term on, amongst other things, the following issues:

• How can specialised contact points be established to act as an interface between the authorities and the organisations carrying out disengagement work? How can the exchange of information – particularly in the case of high-risk individuals – be organised efficiently and in a legally sound manner?
• What do the various stakeholders in the field of extremism prevention need to fulfil their tasks?
• How can effective working structures be consolidated and made sustainable?

From the perspective of a civil society organisation involved in the prevention of extremism and deradicalisation, which is active in counselling work, the following recommendations for action arise:

• Strengthening counselling capacities: The volume of counselling requests and the complexity of the issues involved are becoming increasingly difficult to manage with current resources: support for this work through sufficient and sustained resources is essential. Cases already must be prioritised, and new channels of access cannot be identified, as this would require the creation of additional counselling capacities. Specifically, we propose increasing the staffing levels at the respective counselling centres in each federal state by one specialist post (funded by the state). Furthermore, temporary support is required to cope with increased or complex caseloads. To this end, we propose an additional, nationwide ‘Mobile Counselling Team’ comprising three experienced counsellors (funded by the federal government). This team can cover a temporary increase in demand for counselling and, thanks to its proven expertise, can also provide support, particularly when dealing with high-risk individuals.
  
• Improving the exchange of information: In the context of high-risk individuals, the following information, amongst others, is required immediately for counselling work: classification as a high-risk individual, access to court judgements, information on any further orders or conditions, and knowledge of previous and/or ongoing legal proceedings. This information is of great importance for case assessment, evaluating the counselling dynamic, and structuring the counselling process.
  
  Furthermore, this information is necessary to implement protective measures to ensure the safety of staff. To achieve this, it should be examined whether the remit of the existing repatriation coordination unit in the respective federal state can be extended to cover high-risk individuals, as there is already many years’ experience in the necessary exchange of information between the various stakeholders. Overall, the procedural processes for dealing with high-risk individuals must be made binding.
  
• Early intervention: In the case of high-risk individuals, the clearing and contact phase of the deradicalisation process should begin whilst they are in pre-trial detention. This enables an efficient transition to the actual counselling work in the event of their release. Case-specific cooperation with the security authorities must be initiated whilst the individual is still in pre-trial detention. Furthermore, consideration should be given to how official recommendations to contact a counselling centre can be made more binding.

For further information, please contact: presse@violence-prevention-network.de