Shots by police officers at people armed with knives have sparked debate in recent weeks – especially the case in Dortmund. In fact, officials have been attacked several times with stabbing weapons in recent years, as a situation report by the (LKA) shows.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – In North Rhine-Westphalia, police officers have recently been attacked several times with knives. A new picture of the situation by the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), which was available to the German Press Agency, records 56 such attacks. The paper “Violence against police officers” shows a total of 7564 crimes. The majority (6396) comes from 2021, around 1100 from 2020, some from previous years – because the cases that were closed last year were counted.
According to the situation report, the suspects were unarmed in most cases, they took action verbally or physically against the officers. In the case of armed attacks, in addition to stabbing weapons, slashing weapons (eleven times), pistols (three times) or blank guns (four times) were used, for example.
Of the 7,564 acts recorded, around 60 percent were “resistance to law enforcement officials”. This is followed by “assault against law enforcement officers” (2046 cases), “threats” (458) and “dangerous and serious bodily harm” (349).
The situation picture of the LKA was initially unpublished. Several media had previously reported.