On the road with the SBB police in action against “coatis” and mobsters
Mask requirements apply in public transport. The SBB police encounter forgetful, aggressive and troubled people during controls. One group in particular is often stubborn. An inspection.
01/14/2022, 18:0401/14/2022, 18:15
Stefan Ehrbar / chmedia
He doesn’t lack calm, but he lacks the mask. “May I bite you, put one on?” Alexander Meyer asks the young man who is standing calmly in the entrance area of the S7 in Zurich-Stadelhofen this Thursday around 6 p.m. “I don’t have any,” explains the 20-year-old. “Then I’ll have to ask you to get off this train,” Meyer replies.
Together with the policewoman Chiara Schmid and the policeman Tobias Keller* he patrols trains and stations that evening. Meyer is the base chief of the SBB transport police (TPO) in Zurich main station. He is responsible for 25 police officers. TPO employs 208 uniformed staff at 13 bases throughout Switzerland. For a year and a half, they have had another task: to control the obligation to wear masks. The theme is charged.
Warning mask sinners: Police officer Alexander Meyer * in the Zurich S-Bahn.Image: Severin Bigler
The SBB are in the crossfire of criticism. Passengers accuse her of not being consistent enough. On Twitter, hundreds are demanding a ban on eating on the train, bus and tram so that the obligation cannot be circumvented by bringing croissants with you. Others are boycotting public transport because they believe that the train journey has become too dangerous due to the aerosols and the risk of infection.
The nose remains free
Deutsche Bahn is responding with a campaign. Signs have recently been placed on the train doors. “Wear a mask. bear responsibility,” it says. The SBB describes the mask requirement as “the significant measure of the public transport protection concept”. You will still meet “very good”.
The tour with the TPO shows a more differentiated picture. At 4:44 p.m., the police officers board the S2, which runs from the main station to the airport. The train is moderately full, the mask discipline is excellent. It doesn’t stay that way. Arriving at the airport, Meyer’s team switches back to the Intercity 1 towards the city. What is striking here is that at least one person in each car did not put on the mask correctly. Most of the time the nose stays free.
«It would be better without»
As soon as these people, also known as “coatis” on social media, see the uniformed TPO officers, they routinely and correctly pull the mask over their noses. But there are also those without face protection. In the Intercity this is a group of three young men.
The mask hangs on your chin. “Please put them on,” Meyer tries politely – and is successful. Only when the police officers are out of range does one of the men send a derogatory comment. A few compartments further, a young woman forgot her mask and corrected it immediately when Meyer passed. “It would be better without a mask,” she says and smiles. “Yes, it would be,” says Meyer, smiling back.
The mask requirement does not make traveling on the train any more pleasant. Still, it makes sense. It helps prevent infections. FFP2 masks protect their wearer even better than hygiene masks. The Wall Street Journal recently published data on the effect. If an infected and a non-infected person are at a distance of 1.8 meters from each other without a mask, an infection can be triggered after just 15 minutes.
If both people are equipped with a hygiene mask, it takes four times as long. If they each wear an FFP2 mask, it is at least 25 hours. This data was collected before the dominance of the omicron variant, which spreads faster. Nevertheless, they illustrate the protective effect.
Many young men without masks
Meyer, Schmid and Keller leave the IC 1 in Zurich-Oerlikon and walk through the station. “Mark your presence,” Meyer calls it. “People should notice that we’re here.” They are asked for help again and again – sometimes for very simple questions, such as where a certain platform is located. “Most of them would do it without us,” says policeman Keller. “But as soon as they see our yellow vest, we’re a kind of island of salvation.”
It continues in the full S6. Here, too, some coatis cavort. A group of young men – according to Meyer, an overrepresented group among the maskless – talks loudly and without a mask. After a polite admonition, that changes. But for how long?
A compartment further on, an elderly gentleman is looking out the window. He’s holding a beer in his hand, he’s wearing his mask on his chin. Police officer Keller only has to look at him and the man dutifully pushes the mask up. Thumbs up from Keller.
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Staff are not allowed to hand out buses
Anyone caught without a mask on the train has nothing to fear if he puts one on after the admonition. The legal basis for the mask requirement in public transport is the corresponding regulation on measures in the pandemic.
Of this die theory. In practice, the problems begin with the fact that SBB customer attendants are not allowed to distribute buses. You can evict passengers from the train if they monitor the mask requirement. However, if they remain on the train, the SBB staff must summon the TPO or local police forces.
Tiresome discussions
This can report the refusers to the responsible authorities for violating the Covid regulation. The event as a “last resort,” says Meyer. This was the case at TPO 1,400 times last year. As a result, the accused usually have to shell out a fine and court costs that vary from canton to canton.
If recalcitrant passengers refuse to comply with the TPO’s orders, they can also be found guilty of «disobedience», as defined in the «Federal Law on the Security Bodies of Transport Companies in Public Transport». The result can be a fine of up to CHF 10,000. Again and again bring those who refuse to wear masks to court. Acquittals are rare.
Receives a warning: the young man on the right is wearing his mask incorrectly.Image: Severin Bigler
Meyer can sing a song about the recalcitrant. “They have a whole folder with documents that are intended to prove that the mask requirement violates the federal constitution and ethics,” he says. Such discussions are tiring. They also rob the TPO of time because the releasers have to testify in criminal proceedings. They rarely meet the mask sinners there: “Because they often do not comply with the mask requirement in the courthouse and do not come in at all,” says Meyer.
Daily attacks on staff
There are also a few who keep the TPO busy. Chrigi Rüegg, for example, made the headlines. The dog trainer from the Zurich Oberland enjoys a cult character in the critic scene and sometimes streams live how he drives the train without a mask. In March he provoked a conflict with the security staff in the central station. He did not want to show his mask certificate. Pepper spray was used and fisticuffs ensued.
Meyer’s people have also been physically attacked. Even customer attendants hit it. The TPO returns to the Zurich region about once a day. “Regardless of the mask requirement, he noticed a sinking inhibition threshold,” says Meyer. “The potential for violence is higher.”
The mask is the smallest problem
The TPO has had less to do with unruly football fans in recent months because games have not taken place. But many younger people can no longer go to clubs in the evening and meet outside. Some are frustrated. “The mood has become more aggressive,” says Meyer.
One of these hotspots, where thousands of young people meet at weekends, is the Zurich lake basin with the Stadelhofen train station. Fights break out regularly. Meier says:
«Here the mask is the smallest problem on weekend evenings. You have to let the five be straight.”
When the masks are distributed by the police
When it comes to compulsory masks, the SBB are not solely responsible. Other companies tend to do less. The Zurich transport company recently informed CH Media that they do not have any controls that only focus on the obligation to wear a mask. It sounded like at Postauto.
The Federal Office of Transport (BAV) writes that it has “no role in the implementation of the protection concept”, but intervened immediately when the Sörenberg mountain railways did not accept any certificates and consequently wanted to enforce the mask requirement.
The young man from the beginning has to die but don’t leave S7 after all. “Would you like a mask from us?” Police officer Schmid asks him. “I’d love to,” he replies. Previously, he had claimed to have one himself but could not find it. If that’s true? When the police officers leave the train one station later, the mask that was given still fits perfectly.
* The names of all participants have been changed at their request. (bzbasel.ch)