Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Physical attacks, threats, insults: In the southwest, the increasing violence against employees in the public sector is being researched in a new project. Incidents of violence are recorded and evaluated in order to have reliable data, as Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) announced in Stuttgart on Sunday.

Last year, more than 11,900 police officers were attacked, which is a record. In the current year, the incidents remain at a high level, as the ministry reported.

Firefighters, teachers, employees in local government and job centers and nurses in hospitals are also threatened and insulted. "We don't just accept that without doing anything or even shrugging our shoulders," said Strobl. The research network is managed by the so-called Joint Central Office for Municipal Crime Prevention in Strobl's ministry.