Imagine policemen from Jamaica patrolling New York neighborhoods where immigrants from the Carribean nation are concentrated. Crazy idea? Perhaps, but the German police union wants just that.  

In front of a bridal store, a man and a woman sit on wooden chairs, drinking black tea from small glasses - an everyday scene in many towns in Turkey.

But Hatice Koek's bridal shop is located in Germany, in the Duisburg neighborhood of Marxloh. The 32-year-old Koek has been selling wedding dresses here for years.

When she heard about the idea of using Turkish police officers in North Rhine-Westphalia, where Duisburg is located, she was outraged. It would be "a massive insult, to allow Turkish police officers to patrol here," Koek said, not to mention destroying integration, she added.

The bridal shop is just one of many small businesses on Wesel Road operated by Turkish immigrants. Restaurants, pharmacies, supermarkets, boutiques - all the businesses have Turkish names.

Visitors from Turkey would feel right at home. The residents, too, feel comfortable in their surroundings. But do they really need Turkish police?

A Turkish barber also rejected the idea. "I would laugh if I saw a police officer here in a Turkish uniform," said a young man who was having his hair cut.

If someone has no respect for the German police, he won't take a Turkish policeman seriously either, he said.

Lack of respect

But the head of the German police union in North Rhine-Westphalia is hoping for just that: Erich Rettinghaus wants to send Turkish policemen on patrol with their German colleagues.

His goal is to find why young people of Turkish origin often, in his opinion, have no respect for the police, and whether they would respond differently to Turkish policemen.

According to Rettinghaus' plan, Turkish officers would be deployed in immigrant-heavy districts such as Marxloh in Duisburg and Ehrenfeld in Cologne and given language support by Turkish-speaking policemen and -women or interpreters.

Rettinghaus doesn't see his suggestion as a declaration of helplessness. Rather, it's more like an exchange, such as the ones with Dutch police on the border to the Netherlands.

"During peak holiday times, German police are dispatched to places where many German tourists go. For example, in the popular Dutch resort town] Renesse, there are German police to break up brawls in nightclubs and pubs," says Rettinghaus.

Many citizens with Turkish background are skeptical of importing police officers.
But the presumed foreigners who live in Marxloh and Ehrenfeld are not tourists. Most of them were born in Germany and are part of German society.

The lack of acceptance of German police goes both ways, said a group of young people in front of a video arcade. The boys often feel they are treated badly.

"In fights between migrants, for example, the German police only show up after everything is over," complained a 19-year-old. Another says: "If a German is caught cycling in the wrong bike lane, the policeman says simply: 'Continue on.'

Courtesy Deutsche Welle/germerica