Government commends action by NRW for documenting individuals holding dual citizenship
In a move that has sparked debate among German states, North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister, Herbert Reul (CDU), has announced that, retroactively from July 1st, dual nationalities will be recorded in the criminal statistics. This decision, made by the PKS commission, which is subordinate to the working group on the police of the conference of interior ministers of the federal and state governments, aims to increase transparency, according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
However, not all states are in agreement with this initiative. The Police Union in North Rhine-Westphalia has criticized the new measure, and the Greens, who govern with Reul's CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia, have also expressed their opposition. Julia Hoeller, the Green Party's interior policy spokesperson, has distanced herself from the directive to police authorities regarding the recording of dual citizenship. The Greens consider the measure to yield no insights for police work and believe it plays into the hands of the racist AfD.
Lower Saxony's Interior Minister, Daniela Behrens (SPD), has rejected the proposal to record dual citizenship in the criminal statistics. On the other hand, Hesse's Interior Minister, Roman Poseck (CDU), has sympathy for Reul's proposal but believes changes should be discussed with the federal states and the federal government. Schleswig-Holstein's Interior Minister, Sabine Sütterlin-Waack (CDU), is open to a debate on recording dual citizenship in the PKS but wants to examine the modalities carefully.
Reul believes that recording multiple citizenships could indicate potential flight risks and escape possibilities in relation to detention grounds. The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior finds the approach interesting and will look at it once the first results from North Rhine-Westphalia are available. However, no recording of multiple citizenships is currently planned in the nationwide statistics of the police criminal statistics (PKS).
It is worth noting that, at present, only the German citizenship is recorded for persons with German and another citizenship in the nationwide criminal statistics. NRW is currently the only federal state that collects multiple nationalities for the criminal statistics.
The PKS commission's decision has caused a stir, with some states supporting the initiative and others criticizing it. As the first results from North Rhine-Westphalia become available, it will be interesting to see how other states respond to this controversial measure. No information is available in the search results about other federal states in Germany discussing the possibility of including multiple citizenships in criminal prosecution statistics or supporting North Rhine-Westphalia's initiative.
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