Crime Branch

Crime Branch CID (Criminal Investigation Department) is a specialised wing in many state police forces in India. Personnel attached to this wing essentially work in plain clothes or "Mufti".

Like their counterparts in the Law and Order police, Crime Branch has its own ranks right up to the level of Additional Director General of Police. Crime Branch has senior officers like Superindentents, Inspectors, Sub Inspectors and the constabulary. Officers and men attached to this wing generally add the prefix 'Detective' before their regular rank (for eg: Detective Inspector).

Crime Branch's tasks are to investigate criminal cases, which spans across multiple districts or even states. The CB CID may also take up complicated cases like circulation of counterfiet currency, or very complicated murder cases. The local police along with their normal duties, would find it tough to allott men to these complicated cases. Crime Branch investigation is ordered either by a judicial court, by the Director General of Police, or the government.

Crime Branch officers can be transferred to the law and order police, and also vice versa. Crime Branch is different from Crime Detachment or Crime Squad. Crime Detachment and Crime Squads, are a group of regular law and order police men (who generally would wear the uniform) specifically detailed by the Police Inspector to work in plain clothes to keep a tab on local hoodlums, prostitutes, petty thiefs and other habitual offenders.

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