The Berlin Senate has released its most detailed assessment yet of the city’s weapon-free zones, showing a massive policing effort — with mixed results, as the “Tagesspiegel” daily reported.
The restricted zones at Görlitzer Park, Kottbusser Tor square and Leopoldplatz have been in place since February 15, 2025, followed by an extension to all S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains, bus and tram services in July of that year. The rules, made possible by new federal legislation, were introduced in response to a rising number of knife attacks in the capital. They apply to all persons and cover all knives, including kitchen and utility knives.
According to figures published Thursday in response to a parliamentary inquiry by the Left Party, police conducted approximately 31,000 checks through the April 4, 2026 reference date, with searches carried out in roughly 81 percent of those encounters. Officers logged around 187,000 deployment hours — the equivalent of more than 23,000 eight-hour shifts.
Firearms and Pepper Spray
A total of 411 knives were confiscated, along with 8 firearms and 154 other dangerous objects such as batons and pepper spray. Public transit accounted for the largest share, with 250 knives seized there alone. Police recorded 170 criminal offenses and identified 165 suspects, as well as 676 regulatory violations.
Fines range from 79 to 1,054 Euro, with an average penalty of 378 Euro. However, of the roughly 187,000 Euro in fines imposed, only around 61,000 Euro have actually been collected so far.
Whether the zones have meaningfully reduced violent crime remains an open question. The Senate noted that police report internally to the Interior Administration once a month, but that no broader independent evaluation is currently planned.
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