Through the cooperation, streets, gas stations and service areas could be observed much more closely - "and around the clock", said Reul in explaining the reasoning behind his initiative. The partnership would sensitize truck and taxi drivers so that they would pick up the phone and alert police if they observe something suspicious.

The NRW Interior Minister received criticism for his initiative from the police union GdP. NRW state chairman Arnold Plickert told this newspaper on Tuesday, he considers the "security partnership" to be “aktionismus”, a German word which can imply doing something without a real concept just to avoid an appearance of inaction. "In NRW we do not need deputies, but more real policemen on the street," said the police union chair.

The Federation of Criminal Police (BDK) called the cooperation “a show”. “The problem is not that we have too little information, instead we don’t have the people to work on the cases,” said BDK state chair Sebastian Fielder to the “Neuen Westfälischen” newspaper in Bielefeld.

Marcus Hover, deputy managing director of the Association for Transportation Economics and Logistics in NRW, said that this was a civic duty, which was only being made concrete. “We will not be wearing sheriff’s badges in the future,” he said. In his industry alone, they suffer one billion dollars in damages every year, mainly due to theft, and a quarter of that is in NRW. "That alone is a reason to act. And our people cover a lot of territory, they see a lot and can help. " (Orig. text: dpa, Translation: ck)