A police report detailed that 339 officers were injured in the riots on October 31st, although most sustained only minor injuries. Authorities subsequently made about 330 arrests and detentions, and so far, 218 criminal procedures have been initiated, according to the magazine “Focus”.
Among the suspects apprehended in Frankfurt (Main), roughly half do not possess a German passport. Furthermore, the other half of the suspects who hold a German passport also possess additional foreign citizenship, meaning a minority background. This accounts for 75 percent of all persons of interest. However, this kind of specific data is not always made public.
The German Police Union (DPolG) is demanding that police disclose the origin of suspects, even before courts have confirmed their guilt. Manuel Ostermann, the deputy national chairman of the DPolG, told “Focus” that the police already possess the necessary information, such as places of birth or potential dual citizenship. He argued that numerical transparency could help alleviate the increased polarization in society by putting an end to unfounded speculation.
Ostermann’s advocacy aligns with federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), who had previously attributed the violence to far-left extremists and “migrant chaos.”
Currently, criminal statistics register whether a suspect holds German citizenship or not, and they also record the nationality of foreign suspects. However, they do not record if a German citizen has foreign parents.
Ruud Koopmans, a professor of sociology and migration research at Humboldt University in Berlin, supported the demand for greater disclosure. He told the newspaper that it would be useful for police press statements to mention the origin of individuals. He suggested this wasn’t necessary for every crime, but rather for incidents with a potential “cultural dimension,” such as homophobic violence or antisemitism, or in cases where the nature of group affiliation is relevant, particularly when acts are carried out by groups.
However, Benjamin Jendro, spokesperson for the Union of Police (GdP) in Berlin, noted that categorizing migratory backgrounds poses significant legal challenges. He stated that currently no one can accurately say what percentage of perpetrators have a migrant background. He added that tracking whether a German national has foreign roots is only done for a small number of offenses. Jendro concluded that if the political sphere wishes to have reliable data, there must be a clear directive to record it. While some experts might recognize background simply by viewing the perpetrators, such methods are incompatible with the democratic requirements placed upon the police.
