Police stations Numerous deficits in furniture and fittings In the detention room in Mondsee police station, the NPM criticised the inadequate lighting and the window through which objects could be thrown. The Federal Ministry of the Interior promised to rectify the deficits. In Krenglbach police station, the Ministry had immediately removed all mobile objects from the cell that is used for storage. The NPM also criticised the inadequate fittings in the two detention rooms in Wiesing motorway police station (lack of ventilation, no partition between cell and cell entrance area, no running water). The NPM could not understand that the Federal Ministry of the Interior wanted to wait with the renovation for the new release of the Directive on Workplaces without however drafting a schedule. The Federal Ministry of the Interior followed the recommendation to renovate the water heating in Glasenbach police station, so that the showers could be used by the officers again. The Ministry also had the intercom in St. Martin im Mühlkreis police station quickly repaired. By having the soiled walls in Juchgasse police station painted, the Ministry rectified this hygiene deficit. In accordance with hygiene regulations – applicable bevor the outbreak of COVID-19 – covers in detention rooms had to be changed at intervals of four weeks or immediately when they were dirty. In the case of Wattens police station, the commission noticed in September 2019 a crumpled and evidently used cover on the floor of a detention room even though the last detention in this cell had taken place six months before. A used cover had already been found in the detention room on a visit by the commission in April 2017. The Federal Ministry of the Interior failed to provide a plausible explanation for this. On the positive side, the Ministry followed the recommendation of the NPM to install air-conditioning in places. Lack of barrier-free access One point of criticism that usually cannot be rectified at all or quickly is the lack of barrier-free accessibility. In the phased plan based on the Federal Act on the Equal Treatment of People with Disabilities (Bundesbehindertengleichstellungsgesetz), the Federal Ministry of the Interior defined when which police station should be (re)designed to enable barrier-free access. In the case of around 300 police stations, which are not included in the phased plan, barrier-free accessibility cannot be realised for technical reasons. Originally, police stations should have been reachable without barriers by the end of 2015. This deadline was extended by four years. At the end of 2019 at the latest, the Federal Ministry of the Interior should have relocated all nonbarrier-free stations or have found an alternative organisational solution. In 2020 too, the commissions observed that several police stations did not have barrier-free accessibility. In Lambach police station, the Federal Ministry of the Interior promised the reconstruction by June 2020, which was already planned before the visit by the commission. In Krenglbach police station, the entrance was widened and the installation of a stair lift was promised. Barrierfree status should be implemented in Mondsee police station and Neuhofen/ 159