The days when professional gangs of robbers injected highly flammable gas into ATMs in order to blow them up from the inside out are over. In West Hesse, highly explosive solid explosives were used in eight out of nine cases last year. Four times it remained in the attempt to get the money of the bank, but in the five successful attacks, the perpetrators captured 612,000 euros. Police director Madlen Weyhrich estimated the damage they caused at more than one million euros. Together with police chief Felix Paschek and the head of the department staff, Eva Hertel, Weyhrich, head of the criminal directorate, presented the crime record of the West Hesse police headquarters on Friday in Wiesbaden.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.

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Paschek had cancelled the usual regional presentation of the case numbers in the respective police departments of the four districts Hochtaunus, Limburg-Weilburg, Main-Taunus and Rheingau-Taunus as well as in the state capital Wiesbaden in favor of a central presentation. For the 2500 square kilometers of managed area in the west of the Rhine-Main region with a total of 1.1 million inhabitants, Paschek was very satisfied with the crime development. The number of 51,016 cases is slightly higher than in the previous year (49,230), which was still marked by the pandemic, but still below the level of the pre-corona year 2019 (52,222). At 63 percent, the clearance rate is the third best in the recent history of statistics, and the crime rate – the number of crimes per 100,000 inhabitants – remains below the 4574 mark for the fifth year in a row at 5000. This is below the state and national average. But this also has to do with the fact that with Limburg-Weilburg and Rheingau-Taunus, two rural districts belong to the West Hesse police headquarters. In 2022, the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis left the Odenwaldkreis behind for the first time in a few years with an even declining crime rate (2812) and is thus "the safest district in Hesse". This was "an outstandingly good value," praised the police president.

Almost a third of all offences in the area of responsibility of the police headquarters are thefts. This is followed by property and counterfeiting offences with just under 18 percent, followed by bodily injuries (12.1 percent). Almost 40 percent of all crimes committed in West Hesse are committed in Wiesbaden, followed by the Main-Taunus district (18.7 percent) and the Hochtaunus district (17.3 percent). The number of homicides is manageable, the clearance rate of 96 percent very high, because there is almost always a personal relationship between perpetrator and victim. In total, the police headquarters recorded 23 cases, including four murders and numerous negligent homicides. The statistics also include illegal abortions.

Professional gangs of burglars

Residential burglaries have a particularly strong influence on citizens' sense of security. Last year, the police headquarters registered 845 crimes, a "historically low level", according to Paschek. About half were already stuck in the experimental stage. Unsatisfactory, however, is the now reached low in the clearance rate of only 8.9 percent. Not even every tenth burglary is solved. The Chief of Police justifies this with a further increasing professionalization of nationally active burglar gangs. The police want to counter this by bundling and optimising their preventive measures, including more controls and more presence.

It is no less difficult for the police to track down bicycle thieves. Although the number of offenses with 1250 has been at a constant level for years. However, due to the increasing spread of expensive e-bikes, the amount of damage is climbing year after year and has reached the sum of 2022.2 million euros in 5. Police director Eva Hertel advises cyclists in the region not only to always chain their two-wheeler with good locks, but possibly to install a GPS tracker or have the bike coded during one of the actions of the police. The code reduces the attractiveness for thieves because the saleability on the black market is lower.

Violence against officials

Violence against emergency services stabilised at a high level in 2022. The police counted 240 crimes. Especially in Wiesbaden, but also in rural areas, is no longer an ideal world for uniform wearers. In Limburg, a 27-year-old man attacked two officers with a knife who had been summoned for disturbing the peace. Only a shot in the leg could stop the man. However, he does not prevent him from attacking the officials again after the hospital treatment. In the end, there was no way around being admitted to psychiatry.

A "nice success" calls the police their blow against drug crime in the state capital. In the summer, investigators had become aware of a 30-year-old drug dealer who threw two kilos of amphetamine out of the car in pursuit. The investigation led to two further arrests and the seizure of various drugs, a crossbow with arrows, knives, brass knuckles and a sharp firearm.