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Inner-city violence worse than terrorism, European police told

Other News Materials 10 February 2009 18:17 (UTC +04:00)

Violent crime is a bigger threat than terrorism in Europe's cities, a Berlin senator said Tuesday at an international police conference, dpa reported.

Speaking at the opening of the European Police Congress in Berlin, Senator Erhart Koerting warned against overly focusing public debate on the fight against terrorism, at the risk of losing sight of other potential dangers.

Koerting said there has a marked rise in violent youth crime in the host city of Berlin, where there was a "fairly small group" of 500 so-called intensive perpetrators.

The two-day conference brings together 1800 high-ranking police and security staff from 66 countries to discuss strategies of reducing terrorism and crime.

One measure by which EU states aim to keep track of suspects is through an ambitions plan to share digital identification such as photos and fingerprints amongst the bloc's 27 member countries.

EU Vice President Jacques Barrot said at the conference he was optimistic that the data exchange would be in place by the end of the year.

To date, technical problems have prevented the pooling of digital data envisaged under the Schengen Information System II (SIS II).

SIS II is supposed to replace and expand the system which allows the member states of Europe's Schengen border-free zone to share key data on people arriving in the area.

If the problems bedevilling SIS II are not resolved by the end of the year, the exchange of digital data would be incorporated into the current system, a spokesman for German Interior Ministry said.

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