Senate and Berlin Police present crime statistics for 2021

Iris Spranger (SPD), Innensenatorin von Berlin, spricht.

Berlin's Senator for the Interior Iris Spranger and Police Commissioner Dr. Barbara Slowik presented the police crime statistics for 2021 today.

As in the past, only the abridged version of the comprehensive set of figures was presented for the time being. The detailed version will not be published until the summer. It is already known that the evaluation shows a declining total number of cases, as confirmed by a press release from the Senate Interior Administration on Friday (April 22, 2022).

Crimes in Berlin down overall

Last year, a total of 482,127 crimes were registered in Berlin - a decrease of 4.4 percent compared to 2020. An important issue for the police is fraud involving Coronavirus test centers. According to a statement made by the Interior Secretary Torsten Akmann (SPD) in the beginning of April, 335 billing fraud investigations are currently underway with the test centers. Overall, there was a 6.3 percent increase in property, billing and counterfeiting offenses. Theft of gasoline and diesel at Berlin gas stations had also increased massively in 2021 and especially in the current year.

Many crimes not recorded in statistics

The crime statistics only reflect registered crimes. Offenses such as murders, robberies, burglaries and car thefts are recorded statistically to a very large extent because victims almost always report them to the police. However, most drug offenses, shoplifting and insults are not recorded. Similarly, assaults, sexual harassment and sexual abuse of children often go undetected and therefore do not appear in any statistics. As a result, crime statistics are only meaningful in certain areas.

Fewer politically motivated offenses

The total number of cases of politically motivated crime also fell by 4.9 percent compared to 2020. According to the statistics, the case clearance rate was 39.2 percent, which is also an improvement. Both the number of politically right-wing motivated and left-wing extremist criminal cases decreased significantly. However, the number of anti-Semitic crimes increased - 422 cases were recorded here, an increase of 14.7 percent compared to the previous year.