What consequences would a blackout have for life in NRW? The police prepare and describe a grim scenario.
NRW – Public life comes to a standstill in the event of a blackout. Traffic lights no longer work. The train service is stopped. Street lights, alarm systems and refrigerators fail. A long-lasting and widespread power failure could have unforeseen consequences for NRW. That is why the police in North Rhine-Westphalia are preparing for such a scenario. RUHR24 reports how the authority would like to act in this exceptional situation.
| Federal State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| authority | State Criminal Police Office |
| theme | Consequences of a blackout for the police |
Ruhr area prepares citizens for blackout – police publish report of results
NRW is preparing for a possible blackout. The cities in the Ruhr area, together with the Ruhr Regional Association, recently published the #betterready campaign. This is intended to prepare the citizens of the former coal pot for crisis scenarios.
The police in North Rhine-Westphalia also want to prepare for a possible blackout, even if this is relatively unlikely according to experts. However, the Federal Network Agency expects that there could be brief power outages.
Prolonged power outages would have a massive impact on public life – the police also think so. According to a recently published report by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), the failure of electronic devices such as computers or entire server networks would result in high levels of damage. For the police, this means, among other things, that reports cannot be recorded as usual and data cannot be queried.
Blackout in NRW: criminal offenses would increase and ATMs would fail
Furthermore, a blackout would result in more crime. Criminals would use the blackout to commit crimes. Alarm systems would fail, sliding doors would not close completely and surveillance cameras would not record. The result: theft and robbery are increasing.
A power outage could also have massive consequences for the economy. According to the results of the LKA report, the failure of the cold chain in supermarkets and an interruption in supply chains could lead to rising food prices. Because the ATMs also fail and it is no longer so easy to get cash, a kind of black market could form.
The police want to arm themselves against the consequences of a blackout – their own gas stations should remain in operation
How do the police in North Rhine-Westphalia intend to counter these and other consequences of a blackout? In principle, the police stations should be fully staffed. Reserve forces are also to be used to prevent crime. In addition, the emergency power supply for the departments is to be expanded and the company’s own filling stations are to remain in operation.
In the event of the failure of alarm systems and security systems, especially in banks, museums and other institutions, a concept for securing these buildings should be drawn up. If necessary, police officers have to protect the objects, which in turn would result in an increased deployment of personnel.
The same applies to a failure of the traffic lights in road traffic. There, the traffic would have to be regulated by officials. In addition, the officials want to inform the population via loudspeaker announcements.
Blackout probability in NRW is very low – gas storage tanks are full
Finally, it should be emphasized once again that a blackout in NRW is currently very unlikely. As of Tuesday (September 27), the gas storage facilities in Germany are 91.32 percent full. This means that the gas supply is fully on target. With DPA material
