Crime 2023: Number of crimes increased in Schärding and Braunau

More than 7,500 court offenses were reported to the public prosecutors by the police in the Innviertel in 2023. While the number of crimes increased by 8.4 and 2.5 percent in the Schärding and Braunau districts, a slight decrease of 2.7 percent was recorded in the Ried district. These figures were recently published by the police on the occasion of the 2023 crime statistics. This shows that overall crime in Upper Austria has increased by more than seven percent. The clearance rates in the Braunau and Ried districts hardly changed and remained stable at around 63 percent compared to 2022. However, there was an increase in the Schärding district. Almost five percent more cases were solved there in 2023 than in the previous year. The rate was around 62 percent, and 59.4 across Upper Austria.

Cybercrime: High number of unreported cases

“It must be noted that Upper Austria has one of the highest clearance rates compared to federal states,” says Herbert Kirchberger, criminal investigation officer and deputy district police commander in Schärding. “So you can say that the Innviertel is one of the safest regions in Austria, despite its border location.” In general, according to the police, there has been an increase in crimes against other people’s property and against life and limb.

The issue of cybercrime continues to pose challenges for officials. The numbers there had settled at a very high level. “In this area of ​​crime, however, one can assume that the number of unreported cases is very high. The reasons for this are very different,” says Kirchberger. On the one hand, reports are often not filed for reasons of shame, but on the other hand, the amount of damage to the individual is very low, which is why no reports follow, says Kirchberger. “In contrast, there are also individual cases with damage amounts of more than five million euros. In these cases, the investigations can extend over months or even years.” According to Kirchberger, the Schärding district therefore has a very large number of trained cybercrime investigators. The investigations in this area of ​​crime are usually very extensive and challenging. Officials often encounter legal hurdles due to the international nature of the perpetrators. “At some point it will become virtually impossible or no longer proportionate to carry out investigations in African countries or in Asia,” says Kirchberger. (vabe)