According to the latest figures, the Berlin police registered 1,328 crimes typical of New Year’s Eve at the turn of the year. A clear focus was violations of the weapons law (311 cases), the police said. According to current knowledge, there were 73 attacks on police officers and two on rescue workers.
According to the new figures, 27 Berlin police officers were injured as a result of a crime, 12 of them by fireworks. 49 suspects are known by name in connection with the attacks on police officers and rescue workers. It was said that 18 of them attacked the emergency services with firecrackers or fireworks. 25 of them are adults, the rest are teenagers (11) or young men.
Several thousand police officers on duty
After the riots a year ago, the police had a massive police presence in the capital at the turn of the year 2023/2024. Around 3,200 additional police officers from several federal states were on duty; the previous year the number was 1,300. There were also 1,000 police officers in patrol cars and the stations as well as 500 federal police officers at the many train stations.
According to the police, the significantly increased police presence in the city area has led to more preliminary arrests. It was now said that a total of 788 suspects were captured on New Year’s Eve. The majority of them have German citizenship (509). Since some of the accused are suspected of having committed multiple crimes, the number differs from that of registered crimes, it was said.
From the police’s point of view, the firecracker ban zones have also proven to be effective. In addition to those on Alexanderplatz and in Schöneberg, these were also available for the first time in Neukölln on Sonnenallee. The reasons for the new prohibited zone were both dangerous situations in recent years on New Year’s Eve and demonstrations by pro-Palestinian groups in connection with the Gaza war after the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023. According to the police, a total of 20 crimes were committed in the prohibited zones registered.
