Berlin – The number of knife violence on Berlin’s streets is rising and rising. Now the Interior Senate has conjured up a new idea from its hat of measures. Driving license ban for knife offenders!
In 2023 there were five percent more knife attacks (3,482) than in 2022 (there were 3,317 cases) in the capital. Last year a blade was pulled out, threatened, stolen or stabbed 165 times more!
In order to reduce the number of perpetrators, a group of experts set up by Berlin’s Interior Senator Ines Spranger (SPD, 63) has decided: Knife perpetrators should have their driving licenses revoked!
Wants to take action against knife violence with the “Berlin Strategy” – Berlin’s Interior Senator Ines Spranger (63, SPD)
With the so-called “Berlin strategy”, the senator wants to impose, among other things, the loss of the “cardboard” on multiple perpetrators who “show a particularly high willingness to use violence”.
Six knife attacks within two years
“Anyone who pulls out a knife six times within 24 months and thereby commits a crime is, in our opinion, no longer suitable for driving a motor vehicle because of their high level of violence,” says an expert from the Interior Senator’s house.
Knives were pulled out 3,482 times in the capital in 2023 – and the spiral of violence continues this year: as here in a dispute in Britz on September 29th
Sections 69 and 69a of the Road Traffic Act are intended to serve as a lever. “This means that it is already possible today to revoke the driver’s license of those who have been convicted of violence with a knife.”
But so far it has hardly been used for this purpose. This is apparently due to the lack of data transmission to the “State Office for Citizens and Regulatory Affairs” (LABO), which is responsible for driving license revocations.
Bloody asphalt after a knife attack in Neukölln in August
This is now to be remedied and a “Knife Coordination Office” at the Berlin State Criminal Police Office will provide the necessary information to the LABO. From the beginning of next year, the office will receive bundled information on knife perpetrators. If there are several legally binding judgments regarding knife attacks against one perpetrator, the LABO should in future be able to order the revocation of the driver’s license itself.
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In addition to revoking the driving license, the experts have also decided on further measures:
► Individual bans on carrying weapons in public for multiple offenders.
► Introduction of knife ban zones around the clock at Görlitzer Park, Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg and at Leopoldplatz in Wedding from January 1, 2025.
► Prevention measures in accommodation for refugees.
