Police to Monitor Social Media To Prevent Migrant Sex Mobs

German police have announced that they will be monitoring the social media accounts of migrants in order to predict whether or not they will try and group up and attack women again on New Year’s Eve.

German police in Cologne have one thing on their minds leading up until New Year’s Eve and that is to avoid a repeat of last year’s massive wave of sex attacks that took place outside the Cologne cathedral. One way they hope to achieve this is to actively read and research posts made on social media by  migrants to see if they are organizing to gather and commit more attacks FOCUS Online reports.

According to the Cologne police, many of the sex mobs were organized via Facebook and Twitter and that if the police had known this beforehand they would have been able to properly react to the situation. As the situation unfolded last year the police were severely understaffed in the area around the cathedral and were not prepared for the scale of the attacks, having to let attackers go almost immediately after arresting them because there was no free police cells in the city, or vans to take them in.

The police are now employing translators  to scour the Facebook and Twitter feeds of migrants across the North Rhine-Westphalia region sand hope that they will add to already existing plans to beef up the security in and around areas like train stations and public squares.

After the more than 1,000 men and women who were assaulted, sexually attacked, and robbed by migrant gangs the police are looking to radical and innovative methods to prevent a repeat of last year. Ideas already proposed include the use of helicopters, “safe retreats” for women and even the registering of all asylum seekers who enter the areas.

The attacks at the start of this year shocked the German public and were the first cracks in the “welcome culture” attitude that led people to gather at train stations to greet migrants and cheer them on last year. The idea of a “welcome culture” barely holds on in the minds of many Germans who have turned against the policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the recent murder of student Maria L. has only increased the sentiment.

Despite the fact that there were over 1,000 complaints the government has found little success in finding and prosecuting those responsible. Only 24 migrants have been successfully taken to court  and convicted of crimes.

The prosecutor’s office in Cologne still maintains some 820 investigations against unknown perpetrators, 372 of which are sexual assaults. The majority of these investigations have been put on hold down to insufficient evidence.

While the Cologne attacks were the largest known instance of migrant sex assaults on New Year’s Eve, similar attacks took place in other German cities and in Austria.