More operations in the corona pandemic – Munich district
On this cold December lunchtime there is another bicycle near the S-Bahn station Fasanenpark. Thrown carelessly into the meadow, lightly powdered with snow. So nobody parks their bike, not even when they’re in a hurry. It will be one of many wheels that are missing somewhere. One that is stolen and then left standing or lying when the thief no longer needs it. On the Facebook page of the Unterhaching village community, the observation of owner and ladyless bicycles in the community area is increasing, as are the reports of missing persons belonging to their own bicycles.
Siegfried Graf, head of the Unterhaching police station, knows many cases. During the pandemic, he said recently at the town hall, the number of bicycle thefts had risen noticeably. He can only speculate why this is so. Maybe because it is currently so difficult to buy bicycles, the delivery times are very long. “It is noticeable that relative bikes are also stolen, not just high-quality bikes,” said Graf. Surely one or the other would like to save the taxi. “But that contradicts the fact that not so many end up in the ditch,” said Graf. And: outside of Munich it’s not as bad as in the city.
Although the number of police operations in the pandemic has also increased noticeably in the Munich district, in particular due to numerous control tasks, there are no crimes in total. On the contrary: in the district of Munich, around 3.9 percent less was counted in 2020 than nine years earlier, although the population has grown by 8.4 percent in this period. In its annual statistics “At a glance”, the Munich district office focused this time on the police and rescue workers and stated: “Compared to other large cities, the greater Munich area is the safest region in Germany – for the 45th time in a row. “The past few months would have made it clear again what an important role so-called blue light organizations play in our everyday lives,” writes District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) in his foreword.
Wrong craftsmen and wrong corona patients
There are seven police inspections in the Munich district. It was found there that the Corona year 2020 had many expected but also some surprising effects on crime. The number of acts of violence caused by alcohol has decreased. There has been a significant increase in crimes against life, sexual offenses and brutality offenses. Bag theft and shoplifting have decreased due to the lockdowns, as have burglaries.
The burglars have reoriented themselves: while people were sitting at home in the home office, break-ins in offices and public facilities have increased. The many missions often involved disputes and insults, mostly in connection with corona measures. Con artists were also very active and troubled the officials. In addition to fake craftsmen and fake policemen, the wrong corona patients were added who wanted to pull money out of their pockets from alleged relatives. However, the officers never use a service weapon once.
In contrast, the number of traffic accidents in 2020 was lower than it has been in a long time. Which is not surprising, since in the first year of the pandemic there was a lot of closed war and a large part of the people worked at home. However, the trend towards cycling more was also reflected in the accident statistics. More than half of the seriously injured are pedestrians and cyclists. The district office cites the inadequate safety margin and distractions when driving, for example by using the navigation system or fiddling with a mobile phone, as the most frequent cause of accidents. “At a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, the driver covers almost 14 meters in blind flight,” warns the authorities and points out that telephoning is not only prohibited while driving a car, but also on a bicycle. Around a third of the “cell phone violations” in the greater Munich area were started by cyclists.
The brochure of the district office particularly emphasizes the services of the emergency services. “They were and are in constant use and have taken on many other important tasks since the corona pandemic dominated our lives, such as running the vaccination centers,” said District Administrator Göbel. Red Cross, Malteser Hilfsdienst and Johanniter Unfallhilfe have built and operated the four vaccination centers in the district, three of them dismantled and now two have been re-established. The technical relief organization is also constantly in action during the pandemic. It has only just turned back 20 volunteers for the vaccination center in Haar, as the district administrator reported last week. The application for help with the Bundeswehr was also approved last Thursday, 15 soldiers are deployed in the logistics and organization department in Haar, and there has not yet been an answer to the additional application for help from medical staff.
The district sees itself well positioned with the fire brigades, the district office reports of the “highest density of fire brigades in all of Germany”. In addition to the 45 volunteer brigades, seven works and three company fire brigades as well as the fire brigade of the Federal Armed Forces University in Neubiberg ensure safety. They are coordinated by the fire brigade operations center (FEZ) of the district at Mariahilfplatz in Munich. There, too, the pandemic is noticeable in the workload. The district office has determined that the number of mediation services and advice to citizens has doubled. People also call about a heating system malfunction or power failure. The FEZ has developed into a “service center”.