Germany's New Policing Model

Those who have branded Europe, and Germany in particular, too weak and politically correct to stop a purported wave of crime brought on by the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers, should pay attention to the news. German police haven't taken long to get their act together, and immigrant crime is down sharply. Their methods, which include a sort of racial-- or at least behavioral --profiling may be controversial, but they are proving effective.

On New Year's Eve 2016, more than 500 women were sexually assaulted, and 22 raped, in the vicinity of the central station in Cologne by crowds of young men, many of them of North African extraction. Police were outnumbered and humiliated. A few days later, the city's police chief was fired. Mayor Henriette Reker was ridiculed for advising women to stick to a "code of conduct" that included keeping at "arm's length" from strangers. It made Germany look enfeebled and confused, and the many critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to open the country's borders to asylum seekers had a field day.