Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - In North Rhine-Westphalia, police officers continue to be attacked very often on duty. Last year, 18,183 police officers were victims of violence, slightly more than the year before - when there were 18,140. This emerges from the still unpublished situation report "Violence against police officers 2021", which is available to the Düsseldorf "Rheinische Post" (Friday). "Statistically, almost every second police officer was a victim of violence in 2021. Unfortunately, the number of these cases has stagnated at a level that is far too high for years," said State Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) of the newspaper. "The fact that officers were threatened with a gun in 32 cases and even shot at in eight cases clearly shows how dangerous the job is," says Reul.
According to the situation report, most of the 6749 suspects in connection with violence against police officers are between 25 and 40 years old (2769), followed by the over 40 age group (1900). 573 attackers were minors, 42 of them under the age of 14. Most of the suspects are Germans (4762), foreigners were involved in 1987 cases. The majority of 5116 people were known to the police, as the newspaper further reported.
