Change of leadership in the Wels city police command

A personnel change is looming in the Wels city police command. Klaus Hübner, long-time head of the Wels police force, is moving to Linz on July 1st and will succeed the current city police commander Karl Pogutter, who is retiring.

What will happen next in the Wels city police command is still open. The call for applications begins this week, but inside the police department it is said that a successor has already been found for Hübner. This is said to be Hermann Krenn, the deputy district police commander of Vöcklabruck. Krenn has been based in Wels’ Dragonerstrasse since June 1st and is set to take over provisional command of around 170 uniformed officers from July.

Favorite from Vöcklabruck

The appointment has a political aftertaste, because Krenn is a staunch SPÖ man and sat for the Social Democrats in the Upper Austrian state parliament for ten years until 2021. It will be up to the protagonists how the FPÖ-governed city gets along with a red city police commander: “It went well with Hübner and I will also find a good basis for discussion with his successor. Given his age, I assume that he will shape the transition for a younger person,” says Mayor Andreas Rabl (FP).

There is no getting around the 60-year-old lieutenant colonel in Wels because he has no need to fear any competitors due to his experience and high rank. In a daily newspaper, Wels police chief Stefan Müller was recently somewhat hastily mentioned as Hübner’s successor. It is not known whether Müller will take part in the tender.

Krenn is quite confident about his application: “I have been assigned to the location since June 1st and will take over command on July 1st. As the longest-serving officer and the only senior official, my chances are quite good.”

Krenn describes himself as persistent in the search for results and consistent in implementation: “I want to design, not manage. That is difficult to do as the second person. In a hierarchical structure, only one person can acquire something.”

Krenn is relaxed about the fact that the police in cities like Wels are more in demand than in rural areas: “I have also worked as a police officer in Vienna and Salzburg. You get used to a lot there.”