The cases of child abuse recorded by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) almost doubled in the first half of this year.
"The number of reports that we receive about such crimes is increasing, the number of proceedings to be carried out is increasing," said BKA President Holger Münch of "Bild am Sonntag".
According to Münch, as many cases of so-called child pornography were recorded in the first half of 2021 alone as in the whole of 2020. "The significant increase in such cases will increasingly push the police to capacity limits," warned the BKA boss.
He also assumes that the number of computer fraud cases will increase significantly in the current year.
"Here we registered an increase of around ten percent in 2020 and expect a comparable trend this year as well." In addition, there will be strong increases in the area of subsidy fraud.
"Here we are assuming a further doubling of the numbers - not least due to fraud in connection with corona subsidies," said Münch.
On the other hand, the BKA president drew a positive balance in the investigation into decrypted data from so-called EncroChats.
In Germany, over 900 arrest warrants have so far been executed through access to the data from the encrypted communication.
In addition, around 300 firearms were confiscated and almost 230 million euros in assets were secured.
The criminal proceedings focused in particular on drug offenses.
Investigators are therefore very concerned that in the case of the EncroChat data, one in four suspects was armed.