Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens has voiced criticism of a proposal by her North Rhine-Westphalia counterpart, Herbert Reul, to reform the way police record criminal statistics. Reul had stated that police in his state should document all nationalities held by individuals suspected of crimes, even if they possess multiple passports.
“I fail to see what added value this would bring to police work” Behrens told the German magazine “Der Spiegel”. She also expressed her disagreement with the direction of the debate, stating, “Being German means holding German citizenship – there shouldn’t and can’t be any gradations.
Lower Saxony will therefore maintain its current practices. According to Behrens, the issue of systematically recording multiple citizenships within police criminal statistics has not been discussed during conferences of interior ministers across Germany.
A spokesperson for Behrens clarified that Lower Saxony adheres to nationally coordinated guidelines. Consequently, police criminal statistics will continue to record only one citizenship per suspect. From a criminal statistical perspective, the mandatory recording of all citizenships held by an individual is considered of secondary importance.
Multiple citizenships, like citizenship itself, are deemed to hold limited criminological significance. More relevant factors for assessing criminal statistics include characteristics such as gender, age, education level, family situation of suspects, as well as their social environment, substance abuse and any connections to victims.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Reul had previously announced his intention to include multiple citizenships in the state’s criminal statistics, as reported by the “Rheinische Post”.
