photo : Andorand
Without giving the impression (hopefully) that Steiermark is a high crime zone, it is important to point out that Styrian Police carry guns and they don’t carry them for nothing!
Styrian crime rates
Although I can’t cite facts and figures about the incidence of crime or the nature of offending in Steiermark, I can tell you what a Police Officer at Stadl an der Mur told me when we were in conversation with another officer from the UK. Short and to the point:
- in the Mur Valley there is as much crime of all kinds in one year as the UK counterpart has in one week!
Now that might not have been very reassuring if the UK area had been in an inner city area, but it wasn’t. It was in a reasonably ‘good’ (as defined by the UK officer) suburban area. On balance, that gives some peace of mind.
And the Mur Valley Police experience isn’t significantly different to anywhere else in the province.
So why the guns?
I’m not sure I can answer that one. When I asked the Styrian officer the same question, he just smiled
But I did notice later that he followed me off the park and kept up a close line of vision as we drove through the valley……
