Over the past decade, at least 42 deaths have occurred in custody of German police forces. This figure was compiled by a survey conducted by the newspaper “Stern” across all German states.
Baden-Württemberg reported the highest number, with nine deaths recorded since 2016, including six cases that occurred specifically in 2019. According to the state’s Ministry of the Interior in Stuttgart, almost all deceased were severely intoxicated, which was usually the reason for the detention. In these cases, individuals had been medically examined beforehand, with a doctor confirming that their medical status permitted their confinement.
Following Baden-Württemberg is North Rhine-Westphalia. The Düsseldorf Ministry of the Interior began recording figures only from 2024, according to which six people have died in police custody since that year. Bavaria also reported six fatalities, but only starting in 2018. It is important to note that these figures only account for instances where a direct causal link between police action and the person’s death could not be immediately ruled out.
Berlin, Bremen, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Thuringia each recorded one or two deaths in police custody over the past ten years. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Schleswig-Holstein reported no deaths in custody facilities, according to their respective Ministry of the Interior statements. Furthermore, the states of Lower Saxony and Brandenburg provided no data at all.
The police authority in Hamburg also declined to provide figures in response to “Stern”‘s inquiry. However, an inquiry submitted by the Left party in the Hamburg Parliament indicates that six people died as a result of police actions that restricted freedom between 2020 and 2025.
Currently, there is no single official body that collects or records the figures of deaths in police custody nationwide. Some of the states cited potential incompleteness in their own data. Police custody is defined as the short-term deprivation of a person’s freedom, carried out either to protect themselves or to protect others. Individuals can be taken into custody on the street, meaning they are detained by the police, though they usually end up in holding cells at police stations.
