- Increase in burglaries and aggression at Berlin Main Station
There's seen a notable uptick in burglaries, violent incidents, and drug-related infractions reported by the authorities in and around Berlin's principal train station, as per a response from the federal government and the national police to an AfD inquiry.
The count of property crimes, primarily burglaries, jumped from 838 in 2019 to 1,382 in 2023. In the initial half of 2024, there were 713 such incidents documented. The number of violent crimes surged from 228 in 2019 to 620 the year before and 384 in the first half of 2024.
Drug-related offenses increased from 89 in 2019 to 168 in 2023. In that same period, there were substantial hikes in instances of vandalism (2019: 60, 2023: 92), sexual assaults (2019: 11, 2023: 23), and firearms incidents (2019: 8, 2023: 18).
Police officers tended to nab more foreign national suspects than German ones in instances of petty crimes, such as burglaries, in all the aforementioned years. Notably, Poles, Ukrainians, and Romanians were frequently among the detainees. Pickpocketing by international criminal groups is a prevalent issue at vast railway stations. The offenders in cases of violent crimes were split evenly between German and foreign nationalities in certain years, while in others, the majority hailed from foreign lands.
Given the alarming increase in crimes around Berlin's main train station, the federal government and national police have dispatched additional resources, including the deployment of the Federal Police, to help combat these issues. The Federal Police, alongside local law enforcement, have been instrumental in addressing the rising number of burglaries and violent incidents.
