By Axel Lier
The terrible record of New Year’s Eve. In the interior committee, all parties want to talk about the riots on Monday. The BZ has received the confidential final report from the police.
The operation on New Year’s Eve was led by Jutta Porzucek, the head of Directorate 1, responsible for the Reinickendorf and Pankow districts. In a 15-page final report (“VS – Only for official use”), the police leadership made it clear that without the help of the Federal Police everything would have gone much worse.
Fragments of the bullet casing penetrated the officer’s clothing. The policeman was injured in the back by the burst of fire from the pistol. He suffered burns Photo: GdP
Shortly before midnight, it was clear to the police leadership that they had a massive problem with violence in the city.
Because “by 2.30 a.m. the attacks had intensified to such an extent that the area had to be restructured with forces from the BAO (special organizational structure) to deal with the focal point in Neukölln (North),” says the final report.
“Power and intensity” of the violence was not comparable to any previous year. The “concept and the selected force approach (…) have worked to a large extent”, the police leadership praises itself, but admits: “The lack of a task force meant that the deployed units were prematurely exhausted due to the intensive workload of the task forces throughout the city area from the no-pyro zones and had to be reclassified during ongoing operations in order to be able to deal with the situation at the hotspots, primarily in Neukölln, and to protect the fire brigade’s emergency services.” Mild weather and the lifting of the corona rules “contributed to the development of the situation”.
Luckily, the federal police gave significant support to the operations at Alexanderplatz, at Gesundbrunnen train station, in Huttenstrasse and at the Brandenburg Gate. “Due to the lack of forces (…), the course of the operation could not have been managed in this form.”
The report also gives statistics, including previously unknown facts and figures.
- 1,281 civil servants were employed in the “Special Organizational Structure (BAO)”. 1139 were in the rest of normal service – most of them (216) in Directorate 5 (Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain).
- According to the report, 47 police officers were injured. Six resigned from service, 13 had to be treated as outpatients. 41 remained in service.
- Most officers (22) were injured by pyrotechnics, 12 in physical attacks, two in bottle throwing, three in serious breaches of the peace and resistance.
- 355 criminal complaints were made. 89 of them for violating the Weapons Act, 74 alarm and signal weapons were confiscated. The other criminal charges: dangerous bodily harm (47), assault on officials (22), drugs (22) and destruction of important work equipment (26).
- 26 police vehicles were damaged, including many patrol and group cars, nine of which are considered “total failure”.
- 18.7 kilograms of pyrotechnics were secured by the police officers deployed.
- 132 bodycams were “ready for use”, 47 of them were used, 17 video sequences were produced. Five tasers were also ready, but they were neither threatened nor used.
- Most 110 (615) calls came in between midnight and 1 a.m. After ten seconds, 679 calls were “lost”. A total of 3412 emergency calls were received between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., 1371 were “lost”. The average emergency call acceptance time was 20 seconds.
- “The no-pyro zone at Alexanderplatz was used up to a maximum of five percent and was visited by people to get a short break from pyrotechnics,” says the final report.