Austria police launch new duty scheduling system

Austria’s police will begin testing a new duty scheduling system on Tuesday in five districts, ORF reported. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner also announced a recruiting drive for the Vienna police force.

The weekend and night duty allowance will be doubled from 2027, Karner said at a news conference on Monday. Police staff representatives had raised concerns that the new system could lead to lower earnings. Karner said more work would mean higher pay, while officers who chose more free time would earn less.

Karner described the system as the logical final step in the merger of the gendarmerie and police, which took place more than 20 years ago. It is intended to create a uniform and fair system and improve planning through an app that officers will use to register for duty.

The new schedules are designed to increase police presence when it is most needed, with more officers working on Thursday and Friday evenings and fewer on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. The Interior Ministry plans to cover a large share of the overtime through a voluntary pool in which officers can register.

Karner said the 2027 and 2028 budget would not include a reduction in overtime. In rural areas, so-called mobile patrols are intended to help maintain police presence.

The test districts are Vienna’s Brigittenau district, including Leopoldstadt, and Linz in urban areas; Bregenz as a mixed urban and rural district; and the rural districts of Leibnitz and Gänserndorf. All five have already completed a simulation phase, including the preparation of duty rosters under the new system.

Vienna’s police chief, Gerhard Pürstl, said the simulations had shown that patrols could be increased significantly at the times they were needed. He also said the system would bring greater flexibility and more predictable planning, including for overtime, to Vienna’s currently rigid group-duty model.

In Bregenz, the mobile patrol model is particularly relevant because the district includes the urban area of the Vorarlberg capital, the Bregenzerwald region as far as Warth am Arlberg and the Kleinwalsertal enclave. Some of its stations have only seven employees. Deputy district police commander Amy King said the district welcomed being able to plan according to demand.

Following talks with staff representatives, some elements of the test phase will be less extensive than originally planned. The Interior Ministry had sought to eliminate 24-hour shifts where possible, but Karner said that 50 percent of such shifts would remain schedulable during the test phase.

Officers in the test districts will receive an additional 600 euros. Their commanders and deputy commanders will be entitled to two extra days of compensatory leave for the increased planning workload.

Vienna will also launch a recruiting campaign under the slogan “Are you ready? Vienna for a time.” The city has 800 police training places available each year, but the positions are rarely filled completely. In other federal states, more applicants qualify for police training than can be accepted. The Interior Ministry now wants to encourage those applicants to complete their training in Vienna.

For the September intake, Vienna accepted between 160 and 170 new police trainees, leaving 30 to 40 places vacant. Applicants from other federal states will be required to remain in Vienna for five years, including their training. After that period, they will be guaranteed the right to return to their home states.

Karner said the new system would be introduced nationwide on April 1, 2027, after the test and introduction phases.