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CRIME

Crime rate hits 30-year low, but police warn of rise in violence against cops

National crime figures released on Tuesday show that crime dropped significantly last year. But attacks on emergency service workers is one of several types of crime on the rise.

Published: 8 May 2018 14:27 CEST
Crime rate hits 30-year low, but police warn of rise in violence against cops
Photo: DPA

Last year the authorities recorded 5.76 million crimes – the lowest number since 1992 – and in relation to the population, the recorded crime rate is lower than at any point in the past 30 years, the Interior Ministry announced in Berlin on Tuesday. For every 100,000 inhabitants, less than 7,000 crimes were recorded last year.

“Germany has become safer. But there is no reason to sound the all-clear,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said as he presented the national crime statistics for 2017 on Tuesday.

According to the Interior Ministry, 55.7 percent of crimes were solved last year, the highest proportion in over a decade.

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At the same time, clear-up rates depend heavily on the type of crime: at one end of the scale 17.8 percent of burglaries were solved; at the other end, 95.6 percent of homicides are solved.

Three quarters of last year's 1.98 million suspects were men. About 30 percent of the suspects were not German citizens.

Seehofer was able to boast of dramatic cuts in the rate of theft and burglary, which fell by 11.8 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Violent crime has also declined slightly – by 2.4 percent.

In contrast, offences in which pornography was spread increased by 12.9 percent.

Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, Independent Commissioner for Child Sexual Abuse, responded to the news by describing the “shocking extent” of crime involving child and youth pornography which currently exists.

The crime statistics also showed that violations of the weapons law increased by 10.3 percent and drug offences by 9.2 percent. There was also a strong increase of 28.7 percent in white-collar crime, which the Interior Ministry attributed to an unspecified “complex investigation” that was concluded last year.

Police unions, meanwhile, pointed to an increase in violence against police and rescue forces.

“The numerous violent crimes against public service employees are a symptom of dwindling social cohesion and the consequence of a state that is too lenient,” said Elke Hannack, deputy chairman of the German Police union (DGB).

According to the Police Union (GdP), 74,400 police officers were victims of completed and attempted crimes last year – around 2,600 more than in 2016.

SEE ALSO: Politicians condemn New Year's Eve attacks on police and firefighters

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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