The number of crimes recorded by the police in Hesse has fallen for the fifth year in a row.
In 2021, a total of 336,030 crimes were counted, Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) announced on Wednesday.
That is 6,393 fewer cases than in the previous year (-1.9 percent) and the lowest value since 1980.
The crime rate has also fallen to 5,340 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 5,446 in 2020. Statistically, the risk of becoming a victim of crime in Hesse is at an all-time low, the minister said.
65.6 percent of the crimes reported to the police were cleared up last year.
That is the highest value ever measured since crime statistics were introduced in 1971.
"The fact that crime in Hesse has been declining for the fifth year in a row is the result of good, consistent and professional police work," said Beuth (CDU) when presenting the crime statistics for Hesse.
Within the past five years, burglaries in Hesse have fallen by more than 50 percent.
The decline, which has been ongoing since 2017, is due not only to consistent police work but also to the effects of the pandemic over the past two years.
There are significantly fewer traveling perpetrators and the citizens were more often at home, which reduces the opportunities for crime, says Beuth.
With the introduction of the 3-G regulation in Hesse in autumn 2021, the Hessian police registered an increase in offenses with forged vaccination cards and vaccination cards.
The Hessian State Criminal Police Office (HLKA) set up the "Vaccination Passes Working Group", which records all cases that have become known in Hesse and centrally analyzes the different approaches used by the counterfeiters.
To date, around 1,321 facts or criminal proceedings are known to the LKA throughout Hesse.
The number of vaccination passports and or ID cards that have been secured so far is much higher, since a procedure can sometimes be based on hundreds of vaccination cards.