Wiesbaden/Stuttgart (dpa/lsw) - Contrary to the national trend, the number of recorded acts of violence against police officers has fallen slightly in the south-west. As the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) reported, 4994 cases were recorded last year, which was a year-on-year decrease of a good two percent. Nationwide, however, there was an increase of almost two percent, the authority announced on Thursday in Wiesbaden.
According to the definition of the BKA, however, officers do not have to be physically injured for an act to be recorded as violence against police officers. "It is sufficient if action is taken against the official out of general hostility towards the state or out of personal motives or for other reasons," says the federal situation report. Acts of resistance against law enforcement officials also fall into this category.
Most acts of violence against police officers occurred in the comparatively populous federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. Saarland and Bremen brought up the rear, as the BKA statisticians reported. Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony accounted for three-fifths of all homicides.
