Municipal police (Germany)

Patch of the Munich City Police

Stadtpolizei is the name given to the municipal police forces of some German cities.

After 1945, there were many local and city police forces, such as the Munich Police Force, throughout Germany. Small towns and rural areas that could not or did not want to afford their own police force were covered by the Landpolizei which was a mobile gendarmerie-type force organised by the state government. This decentralised system, however, was not effective in fighting the rise of organised crime and terrorism (Baader-Meinhof/RAF). So the local and city police forces were merged with the Landpolizei to form the Landespolizei during the major reorganisation of the German police in the mid-seventies.

Currently, many cities in Germany also have a local public order force. Depending on each state's laws, the name of the force that performs these limited police-type functions could be:

• Ordnungsamt
• Kommunaler Ordnungsdienst
• Städtischer Ordnungsdienst
• Stadtpolizei, which means City Police, in some cities in the State of Hesse.

These city employees mainly wear uniform but some could be in plain clothes and are the municipal administration's eyes and ears on the street. Depending on each state's laws, these local employees could be armed or unarmed. Mostly they are charged with monitoring municipal by-laws and laws that fall under the responsibility of municipalities, which include monitoring the conduct of shop owners, sanitation inspections, veterinary inspections and minor infractions and misdemeanors such as illegal parking, littering, state and local dog regulations etc. They usually only hand out warnings and fines and can only perform a citizen's arrest as any other citizen can. If they see any major crimes they are required to call the State police.

See also

• Law enforcement in Germany
• Landespolizei
• Gemeindesicherheitswache
• Municipal police

Crime:

• Crime in Germany

References

External links