Vienna being one of the world s safest cities, the Greens disagree with police officers carrying firearms, as revealed by their response given on the website set up for the Vienna municipal elections. In light of crime statistics for 2019, however, public safety in the Austrian capital has deteriorated in nearly every category.

The Greens in Vienna are in favour of disarming the police force as revealed by their response to the question on the issue asked on Wahlkabine.at, a website set up for the October municipal elections, Kronen Zeitung reported in its  online edition. In response to the inquiry of the daily, Niki Kunrath, the security expert of the Greens, confirmed the party s position. The Green Party is a coalition partner in Austria s current government.

„Vienna is one of the safest cities in the world. We cannot understand why police officers should be armed,” Kunrath said. The left-wing politician referred to Great Britain where officers are normally unarmed and often only carry a pepper spray and a baton. However, the number of firearms per capita is far lower in Great Britain than in Austria.

The Austrian Conservative parties, including the People s Party (ÖVP) and the Freedom Party (FPÖ), firmly rejected the position of the Greens. „Anyone who thinks it is possible to reassure an armed criminal with kind words and a teddy bear lives in a parallel world,” Freedom Party politician Dominik Nepp, deputy mayor of Vienna, said. „The Green Party s demand for disarming the police lacks all reason and common sense, so we firmly reject it,” Karl Mahrer, a security expert at the People s Party explained.

According to the crime statistics of the Austrian police for 2019, the number of reported crimes in Vienna increased to 173,574 from 169,190 in the previous year, a 2.6 per cent rise. 89,557 suspects were apprehended by police (compared to 82,807 in 2018), the highest figure in Vienna in 20 years. The number of violent crimes increased by 3.8 per cent to 25,053. Within that category, 12,773 cases of mild and serious bodily harm were reported (an increase of 1.1 per cent compared to 2018), while the number of acts of rape went up to to 323 last year, by 5.9 per cent compared the year before.