Dhe of Mainz apparently maintains a very pragmatic approach to external threats. Although 44 percent of citizens rate the risk of terrorism at major events such as Shrove Monday, Christmas Eve and the Christmas market as particularly high, only 5.9 percent consider it very or very likely to be the victim of an attack. “One could speak of pessimistic optimism,” says Gregor Daschmann. The journalism professor at Johannes Gutenberg University yesterday presented the results of the Mainz security survey, which his institute carried out in cooperation with the city and police.
The evaluation of almost 2200 questionnaires resulted in the bottom line: The people of Mainz feel very safe in their city, much safer than is the case in other German cities – and this subjective feeling corresponds to the objective data of the police. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the state capital has the lowest crime rate of all regional centers, police chief Reiner Hamm compared Trier, Kaiserslautern, Ludwigshafen and Koblenz.
Daschmann regretted that he had to make one restriction: the data were representative, but only for the German resident population. The proportion of foreign participants in the survey was too small to be able to derive usable knowledge. “This is not a Mainz phenomenon,” he explained. People without a German passport or with a non-German mother tongue rarely take part in such surveys. Among other things, out of skepticism or because they believed that they were not affected by the topic.
Subjective and objective assessments the same
The questions about the respective residential area gave extremely positive values. Apart from the fact that more than 78 percent of those questioned like to live in their neighborhood, 90 percent also consider this quarter or the district to be safe. At least during the day. Only about 62 percent believe this in the dark. “It has nothing to do with real danger,” said Daschmann. “People generally feel more insecure when it is dark.”
Nor does it need to be overestimated that 36 percent believe that the authorities and / or the police in their area are adequately controlled: where there is nothing to do, the presence of the police is simply not necessary. This is more necessary in the vicinity of the main train station or other inner city areas with a high number of people. “Here too, subjective and objective assessments coincide,” confirmed Chief of Police Hamm.
The answers to the question of security measures at major events show that police presence can, but does not have to, have a calming effect. Uniformed officials on site give 57 percent of citizens a feeling of security; it is by far the highest value of all possible information.
Blocking access routes with concrete blocks or garbage trucks still calmed 43 percent – wrongly, by the way. But at the time of the survey, word hadn’t gotten around in Mainz that such barriers were counterproductive, which is why the Mainz Christmas market is being protected with new barriers this year.
Readjust if necessary
Placing police officers equipped with submachine guns visibly causes 22 percent of citizens to feel safer. Daschmann is not surprised: “You know that from the airport. When you stand in line, you get a queasy feeling when you see heavily armed officials. ”
The results of the first security survey after 15 years served as an incentive for the city, “that it not only stays that way, but that we always readjust if necessary,” said Mayor Michael Ebling (SPD).
You also have to stay alert and take countermeasures when it comes to forms of crime like cyberbullying. A task that the Municipal Preventive Council is tackling, which deals with everything from child protection to senior security – in other words, from the Internet to grandchildren’s trick.
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