English Translation

19238a XV. Crime statistics. A. The police crime statistics for the German Reich. The impeccable recording of the various crimes in the "Police crime statistics of the German Empire" is of extraordinary importance. The statistical compilations serve not only the numerical proof of the individual offences, their investigation, etc., but they form the basis for the measures to be taken by the criminal police. a significant reduction in crime with a good level of education, organisational measures are possible, which may lead to a shift in the workforce. If, on the other hand, there is a very high incidence of offences in a district and the level of awareness remains remarkably low, the reason for this may lie in a failure of civil servants or in inadequate equipment with aids (cars, telephones, etc.) or other things; the reasons must be examined in order to make the measures to be taken dependent on the result. Therefore, the exact management of the police criminal statistics is of criminal tactical, often also criminal political importance for all agencies. As a result, by circular of the Reich Criminal Police Office of 26 February 1938 (RKPA. 1701/6. 38) it is decreed that the leadership of the statistics and its processing must be transferred to a criminal commissioner. (1) As from 1 January 1936, a numerical list of the operations carried out by the police in respect of the penalties listed in the following model shall be made on a continuous basis for each quarter. (2) 'cases' shall mean, in the case of a census, only those cases where the processing of which takes place up to the time of submission to the public prosecutor, at least an urgent suspicion of a criminal offence.