The union for police officers in the southern German state of Bavaria is complaining about a blatant lack of uniforms for police officers.
"Bavaria's police are 'stripping bare' and could literally be standing there without trousers," said the chairman of the Bavarian DPolG regional police union, Jürgen Köhnlein.
The union posted a video on YouTube to highlight the missing uniform pieces. "So, how long have you been waiting?" a police officer asks his colleague in the video before they both get out of a patrol car without any trousers.
Currently, 21 uniform items such as pants, jackets and caps are only available for Bavarian police with waiting times of several months, Köhnlein said.
"Since 2020, we have hardly been talking about shortcomings in the quality of uniform, but rather a shortage in the availability of uniform," he said.
The trade union called on the Bavaria's Interior Ministry to "finally" remedy the situation quickly, "even if this would entail additional costs."
The ministry said the shortages have been exacerbated by supply chain disruptions in recent years.
"The supply bottlenecks for uniform parts are a major annoyance for us," said a ministry spokesman on Wednesday. The state had outsourced procurement of uniforms elsewhere, but plans to take over the process with a new logistics centre to avoid future shortages.
The supply bottlenecks affect special types of police trousers in particular, such as multi-purpose summer trousers. Other types of trousers are available and in the event of shortages, Bavarian police officers can "of course fall back on other trouser models," the ministry spokesman said.
