From Hildburg Bruns
Everyday crime easily hits every Berliner – and it’s annoying!
Car window smashed – Navi removed! The wallet you just refilled – suddenly gone! Broke open the basement – took the beautiful aluminum cases with us!
The numbers are rising again in the first half of 2022: After the Corona break with many Berliners working from home, there are now more thieves and burglars on the move again.
► 12,516 stolen bicycles (2021 a total of 23,153),
► 7004 victims of pickpockets (13,524),
► 3003 home burglaries plus 1300 attempts (5050/2304).
“Petty crime is sad everyday life in Berlin,” criticizes CDU leader Kai Wegner (50). And: “SPD, Greens and Left are doing too little. What begins on a small scale all too often ends in big crimes.”
In the previous year, 13,158 criminal offenses were recorded per 100,000 inhabitants in Berlin – 10,062 in Hamburg and 11,169 in Bremen. Highest crime rate, but lowest clear-up rate: only 45.3 percent of all crimes recorded by the police.
Strongholds of bicycle thefts (already 12,516 in the first half of the year) are Pankow and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Photo: spreepicture
At their closed meeting, the CDU parliamentary group in the House of Representatives put the fight against petty crime at the top of the agenda. Suggestions:
AGAINST NEGLIGENCE: Remove graffiti from public buildings within 24 hours. “Safety and cleanliness are two sides of the same coin,” says Wegner. And: prevent dark corners despite the energy crisis, illuminate sidewalks and parking areas.
AGAINST burglaries: Especially in the outskirts a new police unit, so that more police officers are on the road at night, a fast reconnaissance troop takes care of it. And: cheap loans from the investment bank (IBB) for security technology from door viewers to window locks.
AGAINST BIKE STEAL: In the case of large parking facilities, deter with video cameras, parking brackets with connection points for frames and wheels. Support GPS tracking systems for bicycles and cars with state funds.
AGAINST PICKPOCKETS: Keeping video recordings in public transport for 72 hours instead of 48 – makes it easier to search for the perpetrator. And: Recordings across the board in crime-prone locations.