The Ministry of the Interior announces:
On Saturday, July 1, 2023, the North Rhine-Westphalian police, together with the municipal public order services, once again took action against violent crime, in particular knife violence, with a state-wide operation. A total of around 600 officers were involved in the areas of responsibility of the police headquarters in Bielefeld, Bochum, Düsseldorf and Cologne. Interior Minister Herbert Reul accompanied the forces in Düsseldorf and Bochum to get a personal impression on site.
Herbert Reul explains: "According to police crime statistics, crimes involving knives have been on the decline since 2019. But despite all the caution that is still required in the middle of this year, we are unfortunately currently seeing a trend in the opposite direction. That's why it's all the more important to continue with further measures after the weapons ban zones have been established."
During the second nationwide "Control Night against Knife Violence" in just a few weeks, police officers checked a total of 11,393 people on party streets, in squares and at train stations. They discovered 29 knives, including 12 prohibited knives under the Weapons Act and 17 knives that are only banned within the weapons ban zones. The police also seized a baton and an irritant spray device - both of which are prohibited under the Weapons Act. During the night, the forces deployed filed a total of 33 criminal charges (four of them for violating the Weapons Act) and 22 misdemeanor charges. The police made two provisional arrests and took eleven people into custody. 89 people were sent off.
Interior Minister Herbert Reul emphasized: "The police have optimized their procedures so that they were able to control more than 11,000 people last night. This time, almost 30 knives were found. What we want to achieve is for people to learn. Because of the various events in Düsseldorf yesterday, there may have been a different crowd. In any case, we will keep at it, because consistency is everything in the fight against crime."
In Düsseldorf and Cologne, the police stepped up checks in the state's weapons ban zones - the party miles in the old town and on Cologne's Ringen and Zülpicher Straße. In Bochum, the police increased their presence in the Bermuda Triangle area in particular and also checked vehicles in this area.
Due to several tragic incidents in recent weeks and months in which knives played a role, the North Rhine-Westphalian police are focusing their checks here. On the public holiday weekend from April 28 to May 1, 2023 alone, there were attacks with knives in eight cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. In Leverkusen, a 35-year-old man succumbed to his serious stab wounds.
In 2022, the police in North Rhine-Westphalia recorded a total of 5,081 cases involving a stabbing. A knife was used as a weapon in 4,191 cases. The "use" of the weapon also includes the threat of using a knife. With these checks, the North Rhine-Westphalian police are also responding to increased figures in the areas of violent crime and child and youth crime.