Police registered 5.5M crimes in Germany last year: Interior minister

Around 5.5 million crimes were reported to the police last year, indicating a decrease of 5.6% compared to 2024, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Monday.

There has been a "slight decline" in crime after years of increases, which may provide "a chance that crime will decline in the long term," Dobrindt told journalists in Berlin.

The area of violent crime "also shows a slight decline of 2.3%. On average, we are witnessing 580 violent crimes a day," the minister added.

Law enforcement officials recorded an increase in offenses, including social welfare benefit fraud (up 11.5%), murder, manslaughter, and assisted suicide (up 6.5%), as well as rape, sexual coercion, and aggravated sexual assault resulting in death (up 8.5%), according to the annual police crime statistics report.

Police officers had to investigate fewer cases of robbery, extortion, and attacks on motorists (down 7.1%), while drug offenses, as recorded in the police crime statistics report, decreased by 27.7%.

Meanwhile, the number of children involved in violent crimes rose by 3.3%, to approximately 14,200 suspects. However, this increase was less pronounced than the previous year (11.3%).