The police are your friend and helper, that’s what the police are often called. But what tasks does the police actually have and how is it organised?
The National Police
Basically there is no such thing as DIE POLIZEI in Germany. This is where our form of government becomes noticeable in the police, because we distinguish between the state police and the federal police. The police that is present in the municipalities and cities, that is the national police. The federal states are exclusively responsible for their establishment, organisation, training and payment. They also decide on the strength of their police presence. The fact that this is the case has certainly often been heard in political election campaigns, where the number of dismissals and new jobs is a regular issue. The National Police is responsible for police emergency response. Depending on the federal state, it is divided into a large number of areas. This includes, for example, the criminal investigation department, which is involved in serious crimes such as murder and robbery, but is also involved in arson. The local police, which is usually the first point of contact for citizens. The traffic police are responsible for traffic accidents and traffic education. Then there are special areas such as the motorway police, whose competence is limited exclusively to the motorway. At the head of a state police force is the State Criminal Investigation Office. The State Criminal Police Office supports the local police stations, but is also responsible for serious crimes or special crimes, for example against politicians. Here, too, there are subdivisions such as state security. In addition, the State Criminal Police Office is also responsible for personal protection. The protection of the state ministers and the prime minister falls within the remit of the state criminal investigation office. For the training, the equipment and for the Large-scale operations are carried out by the Länder with corresponding facilities and units.
Legal regulation of the national police force
As you can see from this list, the National Police is a police force with many areas of responsibility. Whereby one always pays attention here, between the Lands of the Federal Republic there are large differences. To illustrate this to an example, there is the object police in Berlin. In the office “Central protection of objects” of the police, one is exclusively concerned with the protection of the real estate of the country, but also of the federal government as well as generally endangered objects. In Berlin, for example, these could be embassies from other countries. These differences are not only noticeable in the organisation, but also, for example, in the equipment. The supervision of the state police is carried out by the state interior minister of a federal state. The above-mentioned autonomy in training, organisation and remuneration is regulated in the federal states in their own state police laws and ordinances.
This is the feds.
As mentioned at the beginning, a distinction is made between the state police and the federal police. Compared to the state police, the Federal Police has a very limited field of activity. The Federal Police, for example, is responsible for protection and prosecution at airports and railway stations, but also for federal real estate. Of course, the Federal Police also supports the state police authorities in criminal prosecution, for example through investigation procedures or techniques that are not available to them. The Federal Police also deals with cross-border crime, which of course does not stop at the borders of the federal states within Germany. In addition to these areas, the Federal Police is also responsible for border protection in cooperation with customs, but also for personal protection for members of the The organization, the number of police forces, the equipment differs from the federal states and is regulated in own laws and regulations. The Federal Minister of the Interior supervises the Federal Police.
Special forms of police in Germany
With these two forms of state and federal police, there are still special forms. These special forms include the Voluntary Police Service and the City Police. In some federal states there is, or was, the voluntary police service. Baden-Württemberg is to be mentioned here as an example, although the voluntary police service has meanwhile been abolished here. These are citizens who are volunteered as police officers. They have graduated training, are armed and are to support and relieve the regular police forces in the police service. Another form is the city police. Anyone who walks or drives through Frankfurt am Main will surely have noticed patrol cars with blue lights and the inscription “Stadtpolizei”. What many citizens do not even know is that every municipality in Germany issues police regulations and statutes. To what extent is always dependent on the federal state and the regulation there. Typical control circuits here are, for example, parking spaces and parking bans. The municipality is exclusively responsible for compliance with these police regulations and statutes. For example, the city police in Frankfurt is responsible for compliance with police regulations and statutes, but is also intended to increase the sense of security in the city through presence stripes. And there is another special form of police in Germany, namely the Bundestag. The German Bundestag has its own police force. It is responsible for the protection of members of parliament and employees, but also for guests and visitors, as well as for the The employer of the police of the Bundestag is the president of the Bundestag.