According to this morning's newspaper the Zürich Kantonal authorities want to stop the Border Police doing stops, searches & alcohol tests on drivers in the Kanton.

For me, this is a good idea (it is also supported by the "regular" police) - it is a pain to be driving say 10 or 15Km from the border & to be stopped & searched by these guys even if you have not been out of this country for weeks. Then there are the stupid questions about what you are (perfectly legally) carrying in case you bought it abroad.

I understand since Schengen they have much less work & they are trying to create "jobs for the boys" but not at the price of annoying the law abiding majority.

Why? Are they afraid of losing some fines?

With Schengen, this is basically possible in every Schengen country.
But few take it as serious as the Swiss, it seems.

Easy explanation: Switzerland is one of the few (the only?) country that singed up for the free movement part, but not the "Zollunion" - there is a free market between the other Schangen countries and you can buy and carry as many goods as you wish without paying customs... so no basis for checks anymore.

The only checks I know are targeted at money laundering (I grew up close to Luxembourg and aparently do still many carry money in suitcases over the border...) and drugs (as you can buy things in the Netherlands which you are not allowed to import into other countries...).

The only thing the border police wants to protect is their job

I see them quite often in the train between Bern and Geneva with a dog sniffing luggage.

Interesting to know. This means they may mark a car at the border, follow it for a while, and then investigate it later.

But why would they not simply pull them over at the border? Perhaps they aren't getting their database queries fast enough?

They do the same as the regular Police - set up a road block, stop all the cars & search some of them.
Does not seem to be any method to it.

They fairly regularly have a checkpoint on the road between Lengnau and Tegerfelden. Sometimes they stop me, sometimes they don't. When they do, it's nothing more than a couple of questions and I am on my way again. It doesn't bother me, well not as much as the drivers with German plates that are always in such a hurry on that road and seem to want to try and kiss my back bumper.

No, the Border Police basically is doing what their duty is according to the Schengen Agreement. The problem in the Canton of Zurich is that also the "border zone" (according to Schengen 15kms) is densely populated and police wise under the control of the Cantonal Police. You may now mention Geneva and Basel, but those two cities have a long tradition as border cities and so have silent agreements between the various police forces (border/Canton/City). In Zurich, the "outer suburbs" of the City of Zurich only "approached" the border within the past 20 years. It amazingly enough works much better around the airport, where the co-operation between border police, Cantonal Police and the City Police forces of Kloten and Opfikon-Glattbrugg is well organized, with the Airport Police Chief (part of the Cantonal Police) being accepted by his colleagues as the Primus inter pares . In fact, the chiefs of the Zürich Cantonal Police already have declared when CH became Schengen-member that they would watch developments closely and intervene if necessary.

I still remember to have been checked by French Border Police upon exiting the parking space of Heliport de Paris at Issy-les-Moulinaux. When I expressed my surprise, the Border Police Senior Inspector asked me whether I had time, and when I said that I really had, explained the situation to me. The man, already in about the year 2000, explained that the border areas in all of Schengen saw local conflicts between the various police forces and that Switzerland when+if joining, might be rather more complicated than France. In Germany the previous Bundesgrenzschutz due to Schengen got renamed into Bundespolizei. In the border zones of Italy, functions which before were with the Polizia (Polizia Municipale for example) have been taken over by the Carabinieri (Ministry of Defence / armed forces) and the "Guarda di Finanza" (Border Control Authority Force of the Ministry of Finance)

You ought to say as I MISunderstand as they since Schengen have far more work then before ! The Grenz-Polizei is a completely different unit from the Customs Authorities and is what formerly was known as "Grenzwacht" with the Grenzwächter. Those who before worked in Customs Control at the borders were moved back into Customs offices in Schaffhausen (Zollkreis II), Zürich, Zürich-Airport, etc .

The Schengen method means that the Grenzpolizei units are not at the border. Their speakers insist that the results are far better when their agents get into move when the potential culprits feal safe.

Let me see
Before Schengen at the borders they had to check people (passports) & do Customs control.

Now since Schengen they only have to do the Customs control part. & this is more work? Did the quantity of incoming goods suddenly double?

If this was a business there would be big staff reduxtions & commensurate cost savings but it is not a business & who cares about taxpayers money?

Sorry, but they did NOT check people at the border or do customs control. Their force of course was far smaller in those times then now. And what we speak about here is NOT the Customs Authority but the Grenzwacht-CorpsWhat you speak about is the Customs Authority. Only a small percentage of Customs officials were really at the border. Far more Customs personnel already in the old time were at airports and in cargo-rail-stations. Now again, those who control your identification-card or passport on your departure and arrival at the airports are NOT people of the Customs Authority but members (including part-time members) of the Cantonal Police. Only those who are around AFTER you got your luggage are Customs officials. After Schengen was implemented, many customs official changed over to the Grenzwacht-Corps or were taken into offices of the Customs auhority mentioned above. For the Grenzwacht-Corps, who before controlled a border zone of a few hundred meters, the area in question became 25 kilometers PLUS major rail stations and all the "customs airports", and so, their work has vastly increased.

The other way round
ZOLL = Federal Ministry of Finance (EFD)
Grenzwachtcorps = EFD also, but it is a different organisation
Cantonal Police = Cantonal Ministry of Police
and THIS of course is the matter in question. That the Cantonal Police detests to see a kind of Federal Police emerging and is quite determined to keep the powers of these Federal agents in check

I have no problem with keeping and supporting the border police. Schengen makes it too easy to smuggle all kinds of crap all over Europe which strengthens organized gangs. I for one would like more control of all of this throughout Europe.

This is like the 3 card trick; move them all around and confuse the punters.

Regardless of the organisational changes the fact is there is a big reduction in work load because the border passport checking has gone away; this should be reflected in cost reduction.

Somebody did have the responsibility in the past to control airports & cross border rail travel; this is not new work.

Saying that they now control a 25Km zone instead of a few hundred meters around the border does not mean they have more work load. Their job is to control goods crossing the border & the quantity/value of these goods has not changed much since Schengen so their work load is the same. They should concentrate on that & not annoy innocent people who happen to be driving around 25Km from the border.

How does Schengen make it easier? I think you are confusing Schengen with another policy that allows free movement of goods between EU countries.

You have to see the Schengen agreement in conjunction the Dublin agreement. Before, crime simply circumvented the existing border controls, using fairly large aereas of "green borders", areas without official and paved roads but with ways you can use with cars like a Lada 124 . Thanks to the Dublin Agreement, police forces of Swiss Cantons, German Bundesländer, French regions (even Départements), Italian regions (even provinces, can directly co-operate without having to get the central governments involved. If Zurich police enters details into the databank, the details become immediately visible to all other police forces Europa-wide.

Furthermore, the co-operating police forces will notify each other so that certain cars or people can be taken under surveillance across borders, and the "Zugriff/picking-up" takes place at a location where the culprits feel secure. The results now are clearly better than in the past.

Well, I'm not sure it necessarily makes it "easier". I should rather say once they are in there is little chance for them to get caught. So for me, keeping the Swiss border control is a good thing as it's one more chance to catch bad guys.

I think it's both policies (free movement of goods & the free movement of goods) are part of the problem as they are fewer controls all together including not catching smuggled people or smuggled goods.

I really believe these are serious and growing problems.

ETA: I posted this before I read Wolli's post where he explains better the situation.

Who has what personnel ? To think that those customs-officials you used to see at the border simply changed over to the Grenzschutz is wrong. Some of course DID, some joined "fixed-base" locations, but many changed into the private economy. Which means that the Grenzschutz had to recruit new personnel, introduce more cars, restructure, and take over new responsibilities. There in fact were doubts about that organisation to cope right from the beginning

What is WRONG with the Grenzschutz-Corps ?
- That they controlled somebody who has not crossed the border, can be discounted as a personal mistake of a team
- That they however control airports, which still are tightly controlled by the Cantonal Police is rubbish

Just yesterday saw a car of them driving up to the fence in the "Heliport Area" of Zurich-Airport, stopping there, not leaving their vehicle, after some 3 minutes turning and driving away again. Such things simply is "actionitis" and does not make sense. Much of what they do in Cantons like Graubünden, Ticino, Valais/Wallis, Neuchâtel and Jura may make sense, but much of what they do in the Canton of Zurich is complete nonsense. There is just one positive service they do and that is that guard foreign consulates as well as Jewish schools and synagogues. So that the Cantonal Police is not basically against their existence, but opposes duplications of activities.

Co-ordination is the keyword. I mean, imagine, a smuggler is caught by the Grenschutz-chaps. They have to hand over the customs-aspects to the Customs Authorities, and the smuggler himself to the Cantonal Police. At Customs things will be handled by the Zoll-Fahndung. This complicated pattern produces heaps of red tape.

But of course, why making things simple, if you can make it complicated

According to this article from last year, Schengen has become a useful crime fighting tool:

Swiss reflect on Schengen progress one year on

I'm surprised.