Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Around 5,000 people with disabilities currently work for the North Rhine-Westphalian police. According to the Ministry of the Interior, seven percent of the workforce is “far more” than the five percent required by law. A competence center for accessibility is now being opened at the State Office for Central Police Services (LZPD) – this is a nationwide novelty.
The new headquarters will take care of barrier-free IT and the disabled-friendly equipment of workplaces. The LZPD has advertised several positions for the new department, which will take care of, among other things, workplaces suitable for the disabled, technology and public relations.
In the current issue of the police employee magazine “Streife” some of the 5000 employees with disabilities are portrayed. These include a police officer who was paralyzed from the waist down after a construction site accident and heads the traffic department in Dülmen, or an almost blind employee from a telephone switchboard.
Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) emphasizes the importance of accessibility in the “patrol” – both in the form of ramps and in terms of technology: “In our projects, we have to think about accessibility from the start. We owe that to our valuable employees. “
