From the point of view of the district office, the planned police station at the Kottbuser Tor crime hotspot in Berlin-Kreuzberg is being built in the wrong rooms. “In my view, the place is not suitable,” said the mayor of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Clara Herrmann (Greens), the “Berliner Morgenpost” (Sunday). The guard is scheduled to move into the first floor of a high-rise building at Kottbusser Tor in early 2023, right next to a well-known pub across the street.
“It was neglected to talk to the neighborhood about it early on,” criticized Herrmann. There are fears associated with this place. “Like the question: do we have a police station that looks down on us from above?”
Herrmann said she could also understand that the issue of video surveillance occupies many people in the square.
“The choice of location is one thing in my opinion, but the other is the concept,” she added. The police must be in contact with traders and residents. “The people at Kottbusser Tor want contact area officials.”
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The Kottbusser Tor has been a well-known nightlife spot for decades – but also notorious for street crime and drug trafficking. The neighborhood is divided on the subject of police stations: on the one hand, there is hope that the area will benefit from this, but on the other hand, there is also some strong rejection.
