In 2023, Lippe will be the district with the second-lowest crime rate in North Rhine-Westphalia. This good news was announced by the head of the authorities, Dr. Axel Lehmann, together with the head of the Lippe police department, Police Director Alexander Fenske and the deputy head of the criminal investigation department, First Chief Detective Inspector Heiko Wind, at the presentation of the crime statistics on 3 April 2024 in Detmold. Last year, 5.14 percent fewer crimes were registered than in the previous year, with a total of 15,164 crimes recorded in the area of responsibility of the Lippe district police authority.
A significant increase of over 23 percent was recorded for 2022, which has not continued. The considerable increase was apparently due to the significant drop in crime figures in the coronavirus years.
The crime frequency figure is also falling with the decline in crime: 4,325 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants make the district of Lippe one of the safest regions in NRW. The probability of becoming a victim of crime in Lippe has therefore fallen once again.
The crime clearance rate in the district of Lippe is 59.71% - a strong figure that has improved by over 3 percentage points compared to the previous year. "This means that the Lippe rate is even better than the overall clearance rate in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which at 54.17% is the best figure for over 60 years," said a delighted Axel Lehmann, head of the authority. "This speaks for the very good work of the investigators in the district of Lippe and for the good cooperation with the police and district service as well as the people of Lippe in solving crimes."
In order for the police to find out about crimes, a report should always be made. This can now easily be done online: Last year, 3144 online reports were filed for Lippe, which corresponds to around 20 percent of the crimes detected. However, online reporting is not suitable in every case. "If the police need to take action immediately, for example because you have been mugged, please always call 110," emphasized the head of the authority.
Short summary of the annual report
In the area of property crimes, the development of the figures is very heterogeneous, with an overall decrease of 11.19 percent to 4823 crimes. While the number of dwelling burglaries reached its third-lowest level in the last 10 years in 2023 with 218 cases, pocket thefts have risen by 33 percent to 253 crimes.
The district police authority has therefore significantly increased its measures to combat pickpocketing, with a particular focus on prevention. After all, the most effective protection against pickpocketing is an attentive population that takes responsibility for looking after their belongings. In many cases, pickpockets have had too easy a game up to now, especially when shopping: the wallet is placed in the shopping cart, easily accessible in the open handbag or jacket pocket, so that the thieves can easily gain access. The PIN for the bank card is often still in the wallet, an all-round service for the pickpocket, so to speak.
The number of bicycle thefts fell by 26.2 percent to 569 crimes. However, e-bikes and pedelecs in particular remain popular stolen goods due to their value. Theft to/from motor vehicles was also reported significantly less in 2023 (546 offenses) than in the previous year (715 offenses). In more than half of the cases, the perpetrators did not have to overcome any security devices. The thefts were therefore committed from unlocked vehicles, for example.
The Lippe police recorded a slight increase of 1.31 percent in crude crimes. This is mainly due to rising figures in the area of robbery offenses. There were 19 more robbery offenses than in 2022, which corresponds to an increase of over 17.15 percent to 130 offenses. However, this is offset by a very good clearance rate of just over 80%. Among other things, last year investigators managed to identify two young people as suspects in a series of four petrol station robberies with the support of the security and district services and attentive witnesses.
In contrast, crimes involving bodily harm decreased slightly. In 2023, a total of 1787 crimes were recorded, 471 of which were dangerous and grievous bodily harm. In the previous year, this figure was 2.77 percent higher.
After a steady increase over the last 10 years, the total number of sexual offenses in Lippe has fallen again for the first time, by over 9 percent to 711 crimes. We continue to have a high clearance rate of over 87%.
Compared to previous years, there has also been a decline in the area of displays of abuse for the first time in 2023. Nevertheless, the number of cases remains high at 396 crimes. However, this is mainly due to the increased elucidation of the dark field through more information about operators of social media and messenger services, better technical equipment and the increased willingness of the population to report these crimes.
In the area of narcotics offenses, a total of 8.97 percent fewer cases were registered.
In the area of property and counterfeiting offenses, 2,519 crimes were registered for 2023. Compared to the previous year (2,307 offenses), this represents an increase of 9.19%. This category includes all fraud proceedings (+28.11%) and forgery offenses (-37.76%).
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