The state and nationwide trend for the past year has not bypassed Dortmund. Compared to 2022, the total crime rate in the city rose by almost 12% from 62,761 to 70,241 reported crimes.

Officers were once again able to solve more than half of these crimes last year: With a clearance rate of 57.14 percent, Dortmund police are not only more than 2 percentage points above 2022, but also ahead of all other comparable large cities in NRW.

The trend in figures had already become apparent to the authority in the first few months of last year: "We noticed a significant increase in crime early on," explains Gregor Lange. "A development that we as the police and therefore as guarantors of safety in this city cannot accept. For this reason, we have already started to take countermeasures over the course of the year. As the police, we not only have the man power to do this, but also a wide range of instruments and measures at our disposal. We have already proven in the past that we are constantly reviewing these and using them flexibly, and we will continue to do so in 2023."

In the middle of the year, the authority bundled personnel as well as control and presence measures in the city center and Nordstadt to strengthen the sense of security among residents, tradespeople and visitors - also in cooperation with the city of Dortmund. A joint task force was set up for this purpose. In addition, the police made repeated use of the strategic search tool, focusing on priority operations, for example to combat street and youth crime, and also on video surveillance - with the new location in Dietrich-Keuning-Park.

The police chief is most concerned about the figures for violent crime: the statistics show 3,423 offences - an increase of 17.55% compared to 2022 (2,912 offences). This figure represents the highest level in the last 10 years. The same applies to crimes against life, which only represent a small proportion of total crime at 0.05%, but the number of reported offenses rose from 25 to 37.

Gregor Lange commented: "I am honest: this development cannot satisfy a police chief. And it confirms a feeling that we as the police have had for some time. The feeling that the pandemic has obviously further brutalized our society. Especially among the younger generation. While transgressions of the norm were hardly possible in times of coronavirus-related restrictions, they are now the order of the day. Conflicts are increasingly being resolved not just with words, and in some cases not even with fists, but with weapons such as knives and firearms. The inhibition thresholds have fallen." The head of the authority is pleased that the clearance rate for these crimes of 65.26% is not only roughly the same as the previous year (66.47%). It also means that around two thirds of these crimes were solved last year.

The Dortmund police also recorded increases in the areas of street crime, robberies and burglaries. 15,518 reported crimes were attributed to street crime in 2023 - that is 1,790 cases or around 13% more than in 2022 (13,728). However, these figures are still a far cry from the peak of 23,003 cases in 2014 (a decrease of 32.55%). There was an increase of 39 robberies, or around 10 percent, to 400, but here too the long-term trend remains similar to that of street crime: since 2014, the statistics show a decline of almost 43 percent, or almost half. The figure is even more than half for domestic burglaries. Even the slightly higher number of 1,248 burglaries in 2023 (around 16% more than in 2022) is still only around a third of the figures from 2015 (3,357). The fact that the preventative measures that the police stepped up last year are having an effect is shown by the attempt rate, which remains at around 43%, or almost half of all crimes.

In all of the aforementioned crime areas, Dortmund police managed to improve the clearance rate last year: by 1.24 percentage points for street crime (18.29%), by almost 4 percentage points for robberies (37.5%) and by 6.3 percentage points for burglaries (17.55%).

The clearance rate for pickpocketing also increased. However, at 6.7 percent, this is still low - which is due to the nature of the crime. This is because victims usually only notice the theft long after the crime has been committed, report it late and are unable to provide any clues about the perpetrator - often not even the exact location of the crime. For this reason, prevention is particularly important here, raising awareness of how to handle valuables carefully. With numerous presentations and talks, the officers from the Dortmund police's 2023 prevention program have apparently achieved just that. This is because the number of pickpockets has fallen by almost 10 percent from 1,930 to 1,747. "After we had the feeling last year that people had become somewhat careless with their valuables after all the restrictions imposed by the pandemic out of sheer joy at the resumption of public life, a greater sensitivity seems to have returned here," explains Gregor Lange.

The number of sexual offences is roughly on a par with the previous year. 1,122 reported offenses in 2023 compared to 1,082 in 2022. In the area of child pornography, 220 cases were registered - 26 and therefore almost 11% fewer than in 2023. Thanks to the intensive investigative work of the Kipo special commission, the clearance rate here is 92.27% and therefore roughly on a par with the previous year. "This area of crime is stressful in every respect: for the victims, for the relatives - and also for the investigating officers. However, their consistent investigative work is all the more important, which is why I have great respect for the colleagues deployed here. In 2023 alone, the members of Soko Kipo carried out 320 searches across the entire area of responsibility and seized 124 terabytes of data that need to be analyzed," said the police president. "We will not let up in this consistency in 2024 either."

The handout with the complete police crime statistics for 2023 and detailed explanations can be found here for Dortmund and here for Lünen and on the following Dortmund police website: Police crime statistics