Violence against police officers: police chief sees no turnaround despite better numbers

Unterallgäu - Respect is the cement in our society.

The police can also sing a song about the fact that this is now missing in many places.

Time and again, patrol officers are insulted or even physically attacked while on duty.

The police headquarters in Swabia South/West has now presented the figures for the past year that document the development of "violence against police officers": Fortunately, fewer incidents were registered than in the previous year, but the police chief does not want to speak of a turnaround just yet. 

It was only last weekend that the police had to put up with two drunks in Mindelheim - the lifeguard on Saturday evening had given the two troublemakers an expulsion from the Mindelheim outdoor pool, but they didn't want to leave.

Police eventually escorted the duo out of the bathroom, with one of the two - a 27-year-old - throwing insults at the officers.

Curiously, he filmed himself and thus provided the evidence himself - which is why he now has to expect a complaint.

"Insane, how about respect?" comments an angry weekly KURIER reader on Facebook.

After all, the two drunks didn't get physical with the police officers, they just gave a few wild replies.

The police headquarters in Swabia South/West, which also includes the Mindelheim and Bad Wörishofen departments, has now presented new figures on "violence against police officers": In 2021, a total of 208 police officers were injured in attacks.

Police spokesman Holger Stabik evaluates positively that this number as well as the total number of attacks against police officers have decreased overall.

In the entire area of ​​responsibility of the police headquarters, the officers registered 683 cases of verbal and physical violence against themselves and their colleagues.

That is more than six percent less than in the same period last year (731).

A total of 1,774 officers were harmed (2020: 1,990, -10.9 percent) and 208 injured (2020: 241, -13.7 percent).

In 2020, the police headquarters in Swabia South/West had to determine the highest level of attacks to date.

In the Lower Allgäu, the number of acts of violence against police officers fell from 72 to 58 last year, and in Memmingen from 98 to 66 - a development in the right direction here too.

Numbers still worrying

Chief of Police Dr.

Claudia Strößner explains: "The decrease in attacks on officials is gratifying.

However, I don't see a turnaround just yet as the numbers are still at a worryingly high level.

The restrictions imposed by the pandemic also contributed to the decline in numbers.”

Who are "the perpetrators"?

According to the police, in the majority of cases they are male and adult, and in more than half of the cases police officers were physically attacked.

Also, more than half of the perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol, around 80 percent have already committed criminal offenses or are even repeat offenders.

In more than 90 percent of all cases, the injured police officers were deployed on guard and patrol duty.

More than half can be assigned to the age group between 25 and 36 years.

Most of the “violence against police officers” occurs on public streets or in private spaces, in two out of three cases during identification or during detention and arrests.

Also noteworthy: In almost every tenth case, the emergency services were even attacked, although they did not intervene against the perpetrator at the time.

The emergency services were mainly exposed to insults (around 36 percent of all cases), physical attacks on law enforcement officers (26.8 percent), resistance to law enforcement officers (21.2 percent) and bodily harm (8.8 percent).

"Any attack on a police officer, even if it's just verbal, is one too many.

A lack of respect must not degenerate into violence," emphasizes Police President Dr.

Strössner.

She appeals: "Society is also required not to look the other way and to show no tolerance for violence against emergency services."

As police spokesman Holger Stabik also says, the police and public prosecutor's office pursue such attacks very consistently: Particularly violent attacks are processed quickly in the prioritized procedure in order to be able to punish suspects as quickly as possible, according to Stabik.

In order to prevent violence against her team, Mindelheim's police chief Dagmar Bethke advises the emergency services to "behave in a friendly, correct and determined manner".

Because legal and actual security of action are the basis for a professional and confident appearance, says Bethke.

If a police officer behaves accordingly, this will also be noticed by the citizen, provided that perception is not restricted by alcohol or drugs.

Alcohol also played a major role in a case from last year that Bethke particularly remembers: the Mindelheim PI was called into the city center to a dispute involving bodily harm.

There, the police officers first separated the parties to calm the situation.

A 32-year-old did not want to accept this "sent-off": after the third non-compliance with the instructions, the officers declared him in custody - but the man, who was drunk at the time and had committed several violent crimes, resisted both the subsequent search and the detention was already known to the police.

Body cam secures evidence

What also helped the Mindelheim patrol officers in this case: They switched on their "body cam" on site - a small, yellow-colored camera with which the police officers (in Mindelheim since the end of 2019) can record the situation in audio and video to preserve evidence in an emergency .

The footage is stored for 21 days.

If the video is not needed for a court case, it will be automatically deleted after the deadline.

The "Body Cam" is intended to increase the inhibition threshold for attacks on police officers - so hopefully the number of attacks will continue to decrease.

Marco Tobisch