New Year’s Eve in Cologne: Police are preparing for an unprecedented New Year’s mission

Despite a general ban on gatherings, a ban on the sale of fireworks and a firework ban mile in the old town, the police are preparing for a busy New Year’s Eve. “We will be positioned with strong forces. We have also increased the number of staff in the inspections, not just in the city center, ”says Detective Director Klaus Zimmermann in an interview with the“ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger ”at the turn of the year. It will be an unprecedented mission for the chief of the management staff and the entire Cologne police force. “We don’t have a blueprint for this year because we’ve never seen a New Year’s Eve under pandemic conditions. And we experience every day that many do not obey appeals, ”he says. Therefore, the police could not assume that everyone who would party outside under normal conditions would stay at home.

For this reason, the police want to increase their patrol duty in the upcoming New Year’s Eve and deploy more staff than usual at the control center, where the emergency calls are received. In addition, plans are being made throughout the city with riot police, announces police spokesman Christoph Gilles. Because of the pandemic and the associated ban by the state government to gather in public, the police have to adapt their New Year’s Eve concept from previous years – and in some cases expand them.

City wants to deal with firecrackers ban on Friday

The police do not want to rely on the firecracker sales ban taking effect. “It must also be expected that people illegally obtain firecrackers on the Internet, do handicrafts themselves or go abroad for it,” says Zimmermann. “It is questionable that we will be spared, for example, burn injuries caused by incorrect handling of firecrackers this year.”

According to reports, the city’s corona crisis team, with which the police are also in contact, will again deal in detail with the topic of New Year’s Eve on Friday. The new Corona Protection Ordinance has imposed on the city to define more precisely “public squares and streets” where the burning of pyrotechnics should be prohibited. So far, Mayor Henriette Reker had only announced a ban on firecrackers in the old town for the night. The ban mile, known from previous years and introduced after the devastating New Year’s Eve 2015/2016, will be expanded around the main station and cathedral. With the prohibition zone one wants to reduce the number of burn injuries and thus not burden the hospitals, which are already heavily used due to corona.

Fire and rescue services, which usually have the busiest night of the year on New Year’s Eve, should also be relieved. In recent years, the Rheingarten on the banks of the old town has traditionally been a party hotspot on New Year’s Eve. In the Veedeln, too, there are usually large gatherings of people in some places at the turn of the year. It is still open whether the city’s top will issue a further ban on firecrackers for these places or whether it will extend to the entire city area.

The hope: a day like 11.11.

This year, the implementation of infection protection within the meaning of the Corona Protection Ordinance is of particular importance, says Gilles. This time the police and the public order office would have to “not only keep an eye on the event areas known from previous years, such as the old town and cathedral surroundings, the Zülpich district and the Rhine boulevard, but also the focal points recognized across the entire urban area.”

Looking back on November 11th, the police and the public order office hope for a quiet night in action. Appeals from all sides to forego celebrations at the start of the session were largely met by people in the city and from outside. Both authorities were still present on the streets with many emergency services.

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