Police chief caught in sex attacks backlash retired early
A citys most senior police officer has been relieved of his duties following mounting criticism of his handling of an orchestrated wave of gang sex attacks on women and girls seeing in the New Year.
A citys most senior police officer has been relieved of his duties following mounting criticism of his handling of an orchestrated wave of gang sex attacks on women and girls seeing in the New Year.
Colognes Chief of Police Wolfgang Albers, 60, was informed by North Rhine Westphalia`s Interior Minister Ralf Jäger, that he is being sent into early retirement, German media sources maintain.
A full announcement is expected later at a press conference on Friday (January 8).
Mr Jäger justified his decision with the statement: “This step is important so that public trust and the Cologne police`s ability to act can be restored.”
The swift action by the minister came shortly after police were criticised for their inability to prevent around 1,000 men from robbing and sexually harassing women at Cologne`s central station on December 31.
The violence outside the train station has sparked a national debate in Germany on migration.
Gangs of men described as of North African and Arab appearance were reported to be behind the attacks.
German authorities say they have identified 18 asylum-seekers among 31 suspects linked to crimes committed in Cologne on New Year`s Eve.
The suspects include nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, four Syrians, five Iranians, two Germans and one each from Iraq, Serbia and the US.
The state police in Cologne have recorded 170 complaints of crimes, 117 of which involve sexual assault. There were two allegations of rape.
The incident has raised pressure on local police, the state government and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere strongly condemned the police handling of events.
“The police shouldn`t work like this,” he said, as it emerged only a handful of people had been arrested.
Law enforcement agencies in Cologne have been accused of stalling on admitting that the unprecedented violence actually took place.
The most serious allegation of failing levelled at the Cologne force stems from the four-day gap between its own website and social media postings.
On the morning of New Years Day hours after the event the proceedings were described as being a relaxed celebration with the only hint of trouble being a stairway to the cathedral evacuated in order to prevent a stampede after the fireworks for the 1,000 revellers went off.
It was the following Tuesday (January 5) before the police admitted: After the massive attacks on New Years Eve at the Cologne main station forecourt, the number of criminal charges has now increased to 90.
Later that day Mr Albers said: It is a crime of a whole new dimension, adding the city force had been left shocked by something they had not experienced before.
He added: It is an intolerable state of affairs that in the middle of the city such offences can be committed.
Women were also targeted in Hamburg, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf in a similar vein to Cologne in what German Justice Minister Heiko Maas suggests is a co-ordinated strategy of attacks.