The number of crimes reported in Germany fell by almost 10 percent in 2017, according to police statistics published by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

It is reportedly the sharpest year-on-year drop in more than 25 years.
• There were 5.76 million crimes reported in 2017, 9.6 percent less than 2016.
• About one third of all crimes were theft offences, dropping by 11.8 percent.
• Shoplifting decreased by 6.6 percent to 353,384 cases and pickpocketing by 22.7 percent to 127,376.
• 33,263 cars and 300,006 bicycles were stolen — down 8.6 and 9.8 percent respectively.
• Burglary fell 23 percent to 116,540 cases, although 80 percent of burglaries are still not solved.
• Violent crime declined by 2.4 percent to 188,946 cases, of which 137,058 involved serious bodily injury.
• The number of non-German suspects fell 22.8 percent to 736,265.

Read more: German states look to reintegration to reduce migrant crime

Chairman of the police union Oliver Malchow told Welt am Sonntag to avoid "premature conclusions regarding the security situation."

He said a large part of the drop was related to the fact that fewer asylum seekers have come to Germany. But he conceded that "since the report started in 1993 we have not recorded such a large decline."

Read more: Germans fear the rise of 'lawless' neighborhoods, poll shows

Public opinion: The sharp drop in crime numbers comes in sharp contrast to a recent poll that found about half of Germans believe there are places in the country so lawless, even police will not venture there. Immigrants are often blamed for increased crime rates, despite the Federal Criminal Police reporting that foreigners are less likely than native-born Germans to commit every category of crime.

Official release: Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer will present the numbers at the Conference of Interior Ministers on May 8. </s> Last year the number of crimes across the country fell by almost 10 percent. This is the sharpest year-on-year drop in almost 25 years, reported Welt.

Whereas a total of 5.76 million crimes were committed in Germany last year, in 2016 this number was 610,542 - a decrease of 9.6 percent.

READ ALSO: What crimes are committed in Germany and where is criminality most common?

Oliver Malchow, Chairman of the German Police Officers' Union, told Welt to avoid "premature conclusions regarding the security situation."

Malchow noted that part of the decrease is related to the fact that fewer asylum seekers came to Germany last year compared to the previous year.

In 2016, several hundred thousand refugees were recorded as breaking German border crossing laws when they arrived in the country.

Since the first time nationwide crime statistics were recorded in 1993, a decline as large as this hasn’t been recorded, Malchow added.

As in previous years, about one third of all crimes involve theft. But with 2.09 million cases of theft recorded last year, this was a decrease of 11.8 percent.

Shoplifting and pickpocketing also declined by 6.6 percent and by 22.7 percent, respectively.

In addition, fewer cars (down 8.6 percent) and bicycles (down 9.8 percent) were stolen.

The police have also been particularly successful in combating burglary. The number of break-ins has fallen nationwide by 23 percent to 116,540 cases - although 80 percent of burglaries are still unsolved.

SEE ALSO: Burglaries drop by over 20 percent in a year, signalling major police success

The number of non-German suspects also fell by 22.8 percent, to 736,265 cases.

Conversely, in a few categories crime rates actually increased.

Murders in 2017 compared to in 2016 increased by 3.2 percent, to 785 cases - in spite of a drop of 2.4 percent in reported violent crime.

Drug offenses also rose by 9.2 percent, to 330,580 cases. This includes an increase of crimes related to cannabis (up 12 percent), cocaine and crack (up 18.7 percent) and heroin (up 2.6 percent). </s> The number of crimes reported in Germany fell by almost 10 percent in 2017, according to police statistics published by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

It is reportedly the sharpest year-on-year drop in over 25 years, with officials saying "we have not recorded such a large decline" since 1993.

Read more: German police launch crackdown on human trafficking, organized crime

Watch video 12:03 Share Fighting burglary: Police under pressure Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2aul9 Fighting burglary: police under pressure

Breakdown of crimes

The report found:

There were 5.76 million crimes reported in 2017, 9.6 percent fewer than in 2016.

About one-third of all crimes were theft offenses, dropping by 11.8 percent.

Shoplifting decreased by 6.6 percent, to 353,384 cases, and pickpocketing by 22.7 percent, to 127,376.

33,263 cars and 300,006 bicycles were stolen — down 8.6 and 9.8 percent, respectively.

Burglaries fell 23 percent, to 116,540 cases, although 80 percent of burglaries are still not solved.

Violent crime declined by 2.4 percent, to 188,946 cases, of which 137,058 involved serious bodily injury.

Murders increased by 3.2 percent, to 785 cases.

Drug offenses rose 9.2 percent, to 330,580 cases.

Child pornography cases rose 14.5 percent, to 6,512 cases.

The number of non-German suspects fell 22.8 percent, to 736,265.

Read more: German states look to reintegration to reduce migrant crime

Watch video 04:21 "No-go areas" - Is Germany unsafe?

Less people, less crime

The chairman of the German Police Officers' Union, Oliver Malchow, told Welt am Sonntag to avoid "premature conclusions regarding the security situation."

He suggested that part of the decrease was related to the fact that fewer asylum seekers came to Germany last year compared to the year before. But Malchow isn't suggesting migrants are more prone to commit crime.

Instead, the figures show that more crimes are committed when there are more people in the country. Studies have shown that Syrian and Iraqi refugees tend to commit fewer crimes because they don't want to spoil their chances of obtaining legal permission to stay in Germany.

Read more: Are refugees more criminal than the average German citizen?

Public opinion: The drop in crime numbers follows a poll that found about half of Germans believe there are places in the country so lawless that even police will not venture into them. Migrants are often blamed for increased crime rates, despite the Federal Criminal Police's reporting that foreigners are less likely than native-born Germans to commit every category of crime.

Official release: Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer will present the numbers at the Conference of Interior Ministers on May 8.

Read more: Amid controversy, Germany's police struggle to find recruits

aw/jlw (dpa, AFP, Reuters) </s> More than 600 women in several cities across Germany filed complaints ranging from sexual molestation to theft in attacks on the New Year's weekend and police investigations are focused on illegal migrants from North Africa as well as asylum-seekers.

The incidents deepened public doubts about Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to open Germany's doors to refugees and migrants, whose numbers reached 1.1 million last year.

The prosecutor's office in Cologne said on Thursday more details about the reward for helping find suspects would be communicated by the police this week.

German police said they had so far been able to identify 32 people suspected of roles in the violence in Cologne, including 22 who were planning to seek asylum in Germany.

But identifying perpetrators has been a challenge for police, who have been smarting from criticism that they failed to stop the attacks. The Cologne police chief has been sacked over the matter.

The assaults shocked Germans and prompted politicians to introduce harsher penalties against offending asylum seekers and foreigners. [nL8N14X31C] </s> The accused, who is known as Ali B. under German law, left Germany for northern Iraq shortly after the May 2018 crime but was brought back in a mission joined personally by federal police chief Dieter Romann.

SEE ALSO: Iraqi charged with rape, murder in Germany's 'Susanna' case

The 22-year-old's trial for the rape-murder of 14-year-old schoolgirl Susanna F. started under tight security at 9.30am in the city of Wiesbaden, Hesse, where the crime took place.

Around a dozen people held a vigil for the victim outside the courthouse.

The suspect has admitted the killing to police interrogators but denied the rape, meaning he already faces a likely life prison term, which in Germany usually translates to 15 years behind bars.

To Germany's far right, the alleged killer, who is also accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in a separate case, has become a symbol of the threat allegedly posed by the wave of newcomers.

Before the trial, the anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party again blamed Chancellor Angela Merkel and her grand coalition or "GroKo" government for Susanna's death.

"The problem isn't 'the right' but the knife-man immigration caused by the GroKo that has caused ever more bloody crimes," the party wrote in a Facebook post.

The AfD became the biggest opposition party when it entered parliament in late 2017, riding a wave of public anger over sexual assaults and other violent crimes committed by some recent migrants.

In another case last year, the fatal stabbing of a German man in the eastern city of Chemnitz, allegedly by immigrants, sparked outbursts of mob violence in which far-right extremists hunted people of foreign appearance through the streets.

SEE ALSO: Refugees still welcome? How one girl's murder is dividing Germany

B., along with his parents and five siblings, first arrived in Germany in 2015, the year that saw the peak of the migrant influx which would bring more than one million people to Europe's top economy.

His request for asylum was rejected in December 2016, but -- in a case critics label as symptomatic of an overwhelmed and dysfunctional system -- he obtained a temporary residence permit pending his appeal.

Merkel later conceded in a TV interview that "the case shows how important it is that people who don't have residency rights quickly face a court and can be speedily sent back home".

In May last year, B. allegedly beat, raped and strangled Susanna to death in a wooded area near his refugee shelter in Wiesbaden.

Her body was then buried in a shallow grave covered with leaves, twigs and soil.

When her remains were found two weeks later, B. and his family had left Germany for Arbil, northern Iraq.

However following a public outcry, he was arrested by Kurdish security forces and German federal police hauled the suspect back from Iraq.

Despite the absence of a formal extradition treaty between Iraq and Germany, B. was put on a flight to Germany, with pictures of him disembarking under heavy police guard making front pages.

B. also faces charges for a park robbery in which he allegedly beat, strangled and threatened a man with a knife to steal his watch, bag, phone and bank card.

He faces a separate trial from March 19, accused of having twice raped an 11-year-old girl -- once in April 2018 after locking her in his room, and again near a supermarket car park the following month.

Prosecutors have also laid charges against an Afghan youth who was living in the same refugee shelter, Mansoor Q., who was believed to be aged at least 14 at the time, for also raping the 11-year-old girl.

And prosecutors have said B.'s younger brother -- who is believed to be in Iraq, according to media reports -- also took part in a violent sexual assault against the younger girl. </s> An Iraqi man goes on trial in Germany Tuesday accused of the rape and murder of a teenage girl that inflamed anti-immigrant tensions amid a mass influx of asylum seekers.

The accused, Ali Bashar, 22, left Germany for northern Iraq shortly after the May 2018 crime but was brought back in a mission joined personally by federal police chief Dieter Romann.

Bashar's trial for the rape-murder of 14-year-old schoolgirl Susanna Maria Feldman will start under tight security at 0830 GMT in the city of Wiesbaden.

To Germany's far right, the alleged killer, who is also accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in a separate case, has become a symbol of the threat allegedly posed by the wave of newcomers.

Before the trial, the anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party again blamed Chancellor Angela Merkel and her grand coalition or "GroKo" government for Susanna's death.

"The problem isn't 'the right' but the knife-man immigration caused by the GroKo that has caused ever more bloody crimes," the party wrote in a Facebook post.

The AfD became the biggest opposition party when it entered parliament in late 2017, riding a wave of public anger over sexual assaults and other violent crimes committed by some recent migrants.

In another case last year, the fatal stabbing of a German man in the eastern city of Chemnitz, allegedly by immigrants, sparked outbursts of mob violence in which far-right extremists hunted people of foreign appearance through the streets.

Bashar, along with his parents and five siblings, first arrived in Germany in 2015, the year that saw the peak of the migrant influx which would bring more than one million people to Europe's top economy.

His request for asylum was rejected in December 2016, but -- in a case critics label as symptomatic of an overwhelmed and dysfunctional system -- he obtained a temporary residence permit pending his appeal.

In May last year, Bashar allegedly beat, raped and strangled Susanna to death in a wooded area near his refugee shelter in Wiesbaden.

Her body was then buried in a shallow grave covered with leaves, twigs and soil.

When her body was found two weeks later, Bashar and his family had left Germany for Arbil, northern Iraq.

However following a public outcry, he was arrested by Kurdish security forces and German federal police hauled Bashar back from Iraq.

Despite the absence of a formal extradition treaty between Iraq and Germany, Bashar was put on a flight to Germany, with pictures of him disembarking under heavy police guard making front pages.

Bashar also faces charges for a park robbery in which he allegedly beat, strangled and threatened a man with a knife to steal his watch, bag, phone and bank card.

He faces a separate trial from March 19, accused of having twice raped an 11-year-old girl -- once in April 2018 after locking her in his room, and again near a supermarket carpark the following month.

Prosecutors have also laid charges against an Afghan youth who was living in the same refugee shelter, Mansoor Q., who was believed to be aged at least 14 at the time, for also raping the 11-year-old girl.

And prosecutors have said Bashar's younger brother -- who is believed to be in Iraq, according to media reports -- also took part in a violent sexual assault against the younger girl. </s> Immigrant men have groped and sexually assaulted a number of women in a German city in copycat attacks of the New Year's eve sex frenzy in Cologne.

Police said the four women who filed complaints after the incidents in Essen late on Friday could be 'only the tip of the iceberg.'

Women who may have been attacked at the Essen Original city party have been offered a confidential hotline by officers to contact them.

The police presence at the festival was beefed up over the weekend as a result of the sexual assaults.

All said that men came up to them in groups, danced around them, harassed and groped them.

This mirrored the attacks in Cologne on December 31 when mobs of North African migrants assaulted hundreds of women in attacks which served to turn Germany against the open-door refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Despite defending her record in a long interview on Saturday with the BILD newspaper, the chancellor is braced for a beating at the hustings on Sunday when the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is set to defeat her own CDU conservatives in a regional election in her home state.

Police said the Essen victims were attacked in three parts of the city by North African men in groups of four and six 'who drove their victims into corners and groped them all over.'

Most of the abusers are still being hunted but police apprehended several lone suspects shortly after the complaints were made. Two 16-year-olds and a 46-year-old man were questioned but later released.

Police spokesman Peter Elke said: 'The heavy police presence on the ground meant we could promptly identify and arrest some suspected attackers.' All suspects are immigrants or of a migrant background.

Elke added: 'The sequence of events has to be determined. Therefore we are looking for witnesses to the attacks as enquiries continue.'

The festival continued on Sunday and will end on Monday night.

Organisers have promised to work with police to provide greater security for women in the hours of darkness when bands play and people stroll among food stands, acrobats and street artists.

The news could not have come at a worse time for the chancellor as the AfD is set to score a bigger percentage of the vote in her home state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday.

Thousands of CDU supporters have defected to the AfD as a direct result of her immigration policy. The AfD wants an end to refugee immigration. </s> BERLIN
• An Iraqi accused of raping and murdering a teenage girl in Germany is facing trial in a case that has inflamed anti-migrant tensions amid an influx of asylum seekers.

The schoolgirl was attacked in May last year and the accused, Ali Bashar, 22, left Germany for northern Iraq shortly after. He was brought back in a mission in which federal police chief Dieter Romann was involved personally.

Bashar's trial for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Susanna Maria Feldman started yesterday under tight security in the city of Wiesbaden.

To Germany's far-right, the alleged killer, who is also accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in a separate case, has become a symbol of the threat allegedly posed by the wave of newcomers.

Before the trial, the anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party again blamed Chancellor Angela Merkel and her grand coalition or "GroKo" government for Susanna's death.

The AfD, in a Facebook post, said: "The problem isn't 'the right' but the knife-man immigration caused by the GroKo that has caused ever more bloody crimes."

The AfD became the biggest opposition party when it entered Parliament in late 2017, riding a wave of public anger over sexual assaults and other violent crimes committed by some recent migrants.

In another case last year, the fatal stabbing of a German man in the eastern city of Chemnitz - allegedly by immigrants - sparked an outbreak of mob violence in which far-right extremists hunted down people who looked like foreigners on the streets.

Bashar, along with his parents and five siblings, first arrived in Germany in 2015, the year that saw the peak of the immigrant influx that would bring more than one million people to Germany, Europe's top economic power.

His request for asylum was rejected in December 2016, but he obtained a temporary residence permit pending his appeal.

In May last year, Bashar allegedly beat, raped and strangled Susanna to death in a wooded area near his refugee shelter in Wiesbaden.

Her body was then buried in a shallow grave and covered with leaves, twigs and soil.

When her body was found two weeks later, Bashar and his family had left Germany for Arbil in Iraq. After a public outcry, Bashar was arrested by Kurdish security forces, and the German federal police hauled him back from Iraq.

Despite the absence of a formal extradition treaty between Iraq and Germany, Bashar was put on a flight to Germany, with pictures of him disembarking from the plane under heavy police guard making the front pages of newspapers.

Bashar also faces charges over a robbery in which he allegedly beat, strangled and threatened a man with a knife in a park, to steal his watch, bag, phone and bank card. </s> The highly anticipated crime stats released was Friday at the Government Administration Building, George Town.

The overall crime rate for 2017 is roughly the same as it was compared to 2016. Overall, crime was actually down about 1%.

Within that overall number, serious crimes rose by less than 1 % and other crimes dropped by about five percent.

Looking at serious crimes alone, Arson is up 36% from 9 in 2016 to 11 last year. Rape is up 29% with 17 reported in 2017. Other sexual offences are up 27%. Burglary is up 14%. On the flip side, we saw some notable decreases too. Attempted murder is down from 8 to 5, that’s a 60% drop. We had 11 fewer firearms offences last year a swing of 44%. Drug offences are down nearly 13 percent.

Police leaders released the 2017 crime statistics report. The overall figures show overall crime down by about 1 percent. When looking at serious crime burglary is up 14% from 2016 to 2017.

It was the only type of crime by which the RCIPS broke it down by the district. Two districts with the highest burglary rates, George Town with 290 and Bodden Town at 156. Firearms offences dropped by 44% overall.

Breaking that down further, possession of an unlicensed firearm fell by 9% overall. Importation was up by two.

“We saw one more case of possession of a bulletproof vest and possession of an imitation firearm and we saw one fewer instance of possession of an unlicensed firearm for ammunition.”

When looking at the Sister Islands Police Commissioner Derek Byrnes said they focus on the sister islands just as much as Grand Cayman.

“There is some concerns amongst the senior command as to the level of crime that has been occurring on Cayman Brac in the last year and we have started as system of sending one of our chief inspectors or superintendents over on a monthly basis to review and conduct an audit,” said Mr. Byrnes

The Commissioner also said a new RCIPS website and app will be coming out in May, making it to easier to communicate with community officers. His hope is that it will continue to strengthen relations with the police.
A report shows German crime rates fell by 10% in 2017, with crimes by foreigners down 22.8% amid controversy over crimes by migrants. Murder, drug offences, and burglaries were among the categories to rise.