There are conflicting accounts about when reports of sexual assaults during New Year's Night 2015–16 first reached the Cologne police.
One high-ranking Cologne police officer reported that on 31 December 2015, in the evening around 22:00 p.m., passers-by in the plaza between the Cologne Central Train Station and the Cologne Cathedral informed police officers on the spot about fights, robberies, and sexual assaults on women taking place in and around the train station; The New York Times wrote however that only after midnight did the police hear of the assaults, and the German newspaper Die Welt suggested the same.
During the night, three emergency calls concerning harassment or robbery near the railway station and the cathedral had reached Cologne police headquarters.

In a press release on 1 January at 8:57 a.m. or 11:45 a.m., the Cologne police announced that the night had been "mostly peaceful" ("weitgehend friedlich") – also rendered as: "relaxed" ("entspannt").
Little later, at 13:21h, the large local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported: Sexual harassment in the New Year's Eve (…) In the Cologne Central Train Station, several women have been harassed by unknown men".
Also the Cologne tabloid Express that day at 21:08 reported the incidents: "New Year's Eve, Central Train Station: Young women sexually harassed".
During the rest of 1 January, several more notifications of sexual assaults or robberies reached the Cologne police.

On Saturday, 2 January, at 16:58h, the Cologne police in a new press release reported the harassment incidents: nearly 30 criminal notifications of attacks and robberies on women, in some cases indecently touching of women, according to witnesses by groups of men with "north-African appearance".
That news was quickly, but selectively, copied by the prominent newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which reported the sexual attacks but not the ethnic profile of the suspects.
Also the national commercial TV channel RTL that day reported the sexual assaults in Cologne in the New Year's Eve.

On Monday, 4 January 2016, 14:00 p.m., Cologne's police president Wolfgang Albers at a press conference stated that "a very large number of sexual assaults" had been committed in Cologne's New Year's Night by groups of young men "from appearance largely from the north African or Arab world", all witnesses having uttered this same racial description.

The Cologne police force at that moment had received 60 crime reports, 15 or 20 of which were of sexual assaults, in one case in legal terms rape.
With that press conference, publicity about the Cologne sexual attacks started to spread in news media around the world.
The German public-service TV broadcaster ZDF though did not report on the Cologne developments in its news bulletin Heute Journal on 4 January 19:00h at all, for the reasons that they could not yet find an eyewitness willing to talk on camera nor confirmation of the ethnicity of the suspects.
The 20:00h news bulletin Tagesschau from the German public-service TV broadcaster ARD however did report on the Cologne events, including the police statement that the offenders, judged by their looks, had come from the Arab or North-African regions.

On 5 January 2016, 90 reports of criminal incidents had been received by the Cologne police concerning last New Year's Eve,
22 or 23 of which were sexual assaults.
Challenged that day by a journalist, about his police force's first announcement on 1 January, as that the situation in the New Year's Eve had been sort-of "relaxed" ("entspannt"), police chief Albers now said: that statement "was wrong".
By 6 January 106 reports had been filed about various crimes, three quarters of them suggested a sexual component, on 6 or 7 January they appeared to include two alleged rapes.

By 8 January 170 women had reported various crimes during New Year's Eve in Cologne, including two rapes.
By 11 January, the total number of complaints was 553, with sexual offences comprising nearly half of the cases.
By 15 January, the total number of complaints was 676; 347 of these included sexual of
There are conflicting accounts about when reports of sexual assaults during New Year's Night 2015–16 first reached the Cologne police. One high-ranking Cologne police officer reported that on 31 December 2015, in the evening around 22:00 p.m., passers-by in the plaza between the Cologne Central Train Station and the Cologne Cathedral informed police officers on the spot about fights, robberies, and sexual assaults on women taking place in and around the train station; The New York Times wrote however that only after midnight did the police hear of the assaults, and the German newspaper Die Welt suggested the same. During the night, three emergency calls concerning harassment or robbery near the railway station and the cathedral had reached Cologne police headquarters.
In a press release on 1 January at 8:57 a.m. or 11:45 a.m., the Cologne police announced that the night had been "mostly peaceful" ("weitgehend friedlich") – also rendered as: "relaxed" ("entspannt"). Little later, at 13:21h, the large local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported: Sexual harassment in the New Year's Eve (…) In the Cologne Central Train Station, several women have been harassed by unknown men". Also the Cologne tabloid Express that day at 21:08 reported the incidents: "New Year's Eve, Central Train Station: Young women sexually harassed". During the rest of 1 January, several more notifications of sexual assaults or robberies reached the Cologne police.
On Saturday, 2 January, at 16:58h, the Cologne police in a new press release reported the harassment incidents: nearly 30 criminal notifications of attacks and robberies on women, in some cases indecently touching of women, according to witnesses by groups of men with "north-African appearance". That news was quickly, but selectively, copied by the prominent newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which reported the sexual attacks but not the ethnic profile of the suspects. Also the national commercial TV channel RTL that day reported the sexual assaults in Cologne in the New Year's Eve. 
On Monday, 4 January 2016, 14:00 p.m., Cologne's police president Wolfgang Albers at a press conference stated that "a very large number of sexual assaults" had been committed in Cologne's New Year's Night by groups of young men "from appearance largely from the north African or Arab world", all witnesses having uttered this same racial description.
The Cologne police force at that moment had received 60 crime reports, 15 or 20 of which were of sexual assaults, in one case in legal terms rape. With that press conference, publicity about the Cologne sexual attacks started to spread in news media around the world. The German public-service TV broadcaster ZDF though did not report on the Cologne developments in its news bulletin Heute Journal on 4 January 19:00h at all, for the reasons that they could not yet find an eyewitness willing to talk on camera nor confirmation of the ethnicity of the suspects. The 20:00h news bulletin Tagesschau from the German public-service TV broadcaster ARD however did report on the Cologne events, including the police statement that the offenders, judged by their looks, had come from the Arab or North-African regions.
On 5 January 2016, 90 reports of criminal incidents had been received by the Cologne police concerning last New Year's Eve,
22 or 23 of which were sexual assaults. Challenged that day by a journalist, about his police force's first announcement on 1 January, as that the situation in the New Year's Eve had been sort-of "relaxed" ("entspannt"), police chief Albers now said: that statement "was wrong". By 6 January 106 reports had been filed about various crimes, three quarters of them suggested a sexual component, on 6 or 7 January they appeared to include two alleged rapes.
By 8 January 170 women had reported various crimes during New Year's Eve in Cologne, including two rapes. By 11 January, the total number of complaints was 553, with sexual offences comprising nearly half of the cases. By 15 January, the total number of complaints was 676; 347 of these included sexual of
2015–16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany