NCJ Number
74565
Date Published
1979
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Background information on West Germany's police and security forces is presented in this paper.
Abstract
Between 1945 and 1949, policing was first a task of the occupation military police and then of selected civilians under occupation forces control. With the creation of the Federal Republic, the various States took over police service responsibilities. Through the inquisitional judicial system, no clear distinction was drawn between the prosecution and judicial functions, and close relationships between the prosecutors' offices and the detective forces developed. Each State police force was placed under the responsibility of a State Minister of the Interior and was divided into three main sections: the Bereitschaftspolizei (emergency, riot police), the Schutzpolizei (uniformed police), and the Kriminalpolizei (criminal investigation department) -- also referred to as the Landeskriminalamt. The Federal Conference of State Interior Ministers, which was established in 1970, provides a large measure of national coordination in such areas as equipment, procedures, and training. Police weaponry has improved over the years under the philosophy that police armament must be equal or superior to any which could be used against it. Both lethal and nonlethal weapons are available, and their use was regulated on a national level in 1975 through Police Service Regulation 100, which set out basic police rules for all State agencies. Federal police agencies include the Federal Border Guard (Bundesgrenzschutz), which patrols the borders and which fulfills counterinsurgency functions; the Federal Detective Office (Bundeskriminalamt), which handles investigations transcending State boundaries; and Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungschutz), an internal security service. The Federal Detective Office maintains a computer data processing system, INPOL, for nationwide data on stolen vehicles, weapons, goods, identity documents, and other items; and their terrorist-oriented computer system, PIOS, is designed to make the most general connections between terrorist incidents and suspected persons.