Saarland Police

The Saarland Police is a small German "Landespolizei" force with approx. 2,700 police officers. As in Hesse and Rheinland-Pfalz, the Saarland Police is abolishing the “green star” ranks meaning their new police officers start to work the road as "Kommissars". This reform aims at making the police profession more attractive and improving promotion chances.

Organisation

The state police falls under the jurisdiction of the Saarland state interior ministry and has two main police authorities, the "Landespolizeidirektion" (LPD) which is the state police headquarters and the State Investigation Bureau ("Landeskriminalamt" or LKA), which are both located in Saarbrücken.

The "Landespolizeidirektion" consists of four departments, the Police Support Group ("Bereitschaftspolizei"), Services, Traffic Police and Investigations. The Police Support Group consists of the state's rapid reaction company, police dog section, the police band and the river police station in Beckingen that patrols the Saar and Moselle rivers in Saarland. Police stations are located in Merzig-Wadern, St. Wendel, Neunkirchen, Saarpfalz-Kreis, Saarlouis, Saarbrücken (city) and Saarbrücken (region).

Approx. 400 investigators and forensic scientists work for the State Investigation Bureau.

External links

* [http://www.saarland.de/polizei.htm Saarland Police homepage (in German)]