[Beth D.]

In the United States we have various levels of police: City (police), county (sheriff), state (highway patrol), national (FBI), etc. These are separate agencies, although they do work together. In Germany, are the Polizei all one group and stationed around the country, or are there separate agencies for cities, states, etc.?

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Name : Beth D., Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 40, City : Wamego, State : KS, Country : United States, Occupation : Journalist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Tomas S.]

According to the German constitution police is a state matter. All 16 states have their own police force, reporting to the state secretary of the interior, with the main branches – Schutzpolizei (patrols) – Kriminalpolizei (criminal investigations) – Bereitschaftspolizei (for operations like large searches, riot control) These state police forces do almost all police work. There are also three federal police agencies: – Bundeskriminalamt (BKA): criminal investigations of nationwide importance, like on drugs and terrorism – Verfassungsschutz: counter-espionage and monitoring of anti-democratic political activity (hence the most controversial of these agencies) – Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS): border, railroad and airport security Entities below state level are not allowed to have police forces. Cities usually have employees who write parking tickets but these are not police. Crimes are prosecuted by state prosecutors and punished under federal statutes. NB: source of the above is what I know as a reasonably well informed German citizen.

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Name : Tomas S., Gender : M, Age : 37, City : Tübingen, State : NA, Country : Germany, Occupation : electrical engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Tina24619]

In Germany, it’s basically all the same thing. Of course the ‘Polizei’ is structured in a hierarchy (‘Polizeiinspektion’, ‘Landeskriminalamt’, ‘Bundeskriminalamt’). Apart from that certain units within this hierarchy specialize in certain crimes. But unlike here in the States, the same law applies everywhere – after all Germany is a pretty small country and does not consist of different States as the U.S.A. – therefore it’s easy to keep the police organized centrally.

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Name : Tina24619, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 34, City : Atlanta, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : software specialist, Education level : Technical School, Social class : Middle class, 

[Matt28752]

The police in Germany can be split, broadly speaking, into federal police (Bundespolizei) and state police (Landespolizei). Although there aren’t great differences between each state, they are structured slightly differently. There are also special forces – anti-terrorism, traffic police, mounted police, port and river police etc.

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Name : Matt28752, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 21, City : Berlin, State : NA, Country : Germany, Occupation : Student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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