- Minister Poseck wants to ban knives from the city centre
In light of an increase in knife attacks, Interior Minister Roman Poseck has called for more powers for the police in inner cities. The development is cause for concern, the minister said in response to a dpa query. "It is my goal to ban knives from inner cities. Knives pose immense dangers in escalation cases."
However, it would be wrong to focus on individual measures alone, Poseck said. Alongside the establishment of weapon-free zones and a tightening of weapons law, the police should also be granted more powers, such as the use of facial recognition software. "We need a package of measures to effectively curb the rising violent crime and significantly improve our security."
Weapon-free zones would have a "high preventive effect" as they open up additional control possibilities for the police, the minister explained. While they are not a panacea, they are an "important building block of a comprehensive security policy."
After Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, the area around Limburg station is the third designated weapon-free zone in Hesse. In the evening, representatives of the city of Limburg and the district, as well as the police and federal police, were to inform themselves about the implementation of controls in the city on the Lahn. Such zones are also being considered in Marburg and Gießen. Poseck also said he sees further need for action in larger Hessian cities like Gießen and Marburg.
Moreover, he explicitly supports the proposal of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) to tighten the weapons law and to prohibit the carrying of knives, including those with a blade length of less than 12 centimeters, and switchblades in public.
In controls of the weapon-free zone established in Wiesbaden in 2019, a total of 297 violations were detected, according to the city's ordinance department. Mainly, unspecified knives (126), one-handed knives (43), and pepper spray (26) were detected. A total of 11,529 people have been controlled so far in Wiesbaden.
Federal Interior Minister Faeser wants to tighten the weapons law in view of the increase in knife attacks. In the new weapons law, she wants to "further restrict the handling of knives in public," as she announced in "Bild am Sonntag." In public, knives may only be carried with a blade length of up to six centimeters instead of the current twelve centimeters.
The rise in knife attacks has led to concerns about public safety, and Interior Minister Roman Poseck has suggested strengthening law enforcement powers to combat this issue. Apart from establishing weapon-free zones and revising weapons law, Poseck also advocates for the use of advanced technologies like facial recognition software by the police.
As Faeser proposes to tighten the weapons law due to a surge in knife attacks, a potential measure could be limiting the length of knives allowed in public to just six centimeters.
