Bavarian State Police
Encyclopedia
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n State Police has approximately 32,000 officers and roughly 5,600 civilian employees and is therefore one of the biggest police forces in Germany.
Organisation
The 10 regional police authorities in Bavaria are:- Munich (Polizeipräsidium MünchenPolizeipräsidium Münchenthumb|Munich Police Headquarters, located at Ettstraße 2-4The Polizeipräsidium München is part of the Bavarian State Police. It consists of 7,100 officers and is located in Munich...
) - Central Franconia: Nuremberg
- Lower FranconiaLower FranconiaLower Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria , Germany ....
: Würzburg - Upper FranconiaUpper FranconiaUpper Franconia is a Regierungsbezirk of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern .With more than 200 independent breweries which brew...
: Bayreuth - Upper PalatinateUpper PalatinateThe Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
: Regensburg - Lower BavariaLower BavariaLower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.- Geography :Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions - Landshut and Donau-Wald. Recent election results mark it as the most conservative part of Germany, generally giving huge...
: StraubingStraubingStraubing is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Bavaria, is held.... - Upper BavariaUpper BavariaUpper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...
-South: RosenheimRosenheimRosenheim is a town in Bavaria at the confluence of the rivers Inn and Mangfall. It is seat of administration of the district of Rosenheim, but is not a part of it.-Geography:... - Upper Bavaria-North: IngolstadtIngolstadtIngolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...
- SwabiaSwabiaSwabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
-North: Augsburg - Swabia-South: KemptenKempten im AllgäuKempten is the largest town in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. The population was ca 61,000 in 2006. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later overtaken by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum...
Bavaria reorganised its police structure between 2005 and 2008 to reduce bureaucracy, changing from a four-tier hierarchy (Interior Ministry, Regional Police Authority, Police Department, Police Station) to three levels (Interior Ministry, new Regional Police Authority, Police Station). The seven Polizeipräsidien in Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, Bayreuth, Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
, Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and Oberbayern (HQ in Munich) gave way to the 10 new areas and the Polizeidirektionen disappeared.
The reorganisation required the rewiring of all police radio and emergency notification networks which are not located only at each regional police authority.
State Investigation Bureau
Bavaria is also very interested in cooperation with Eastern European countries. As a significant percentage of Bavaria’s crimes are committed by organized gangs from Eastern Europe, it makes sense to cooperate with the police forces there to stop these gangs.The Landeskriminalamt
Landeskriminalamt
Landeskriminalamt - is the German term for a State Investigation Bureau in Germany. LKAs are part of the state police which, in turn, is directly subordinate to the respective state ministry of the interior.-Investigations:...
(State Investigation Bureau) is situated in Munich and employs 1,500 officers and civilian staff. Its missions are: witness protection, state security, undercover investigations, statistics, monitoring the development of crime, crime prevention, criminal investigations analysis, exchange of information with foreign countries and forensic science.
Special Units
Bavaria has different special units, which are the- two SpezialeinsatzkommandoSpezialeinsatzkommandoSpezialeinsatzkommandos are the special response units of the German state police forces. German SEKs are full-time units whose members do not perform any other duties, and are essentially the equivalent of American SWAT Teams...
s (SEK) (SWATSWATA SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
teams), one is stationed in Nuremberg for use in the north of the state and one is attached to the Munich Police DepartmentPolizeipräsidium Münchenthumb|Munich Police Headquarters, located at Ettstraße 2-4The Polizeipräsidium München is part of the Bavarian State Police. It consists of 7,100 officers and is located in Munich...
to cover the south of Bavaria. The SEK of South Bavaria has a mountain detachment for operations in the AlpsAlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
. - three Mobile Einsatzkommandos (MEK) (mobile response units), one of which is attached to the SEK based in Nuremberg and the other two to the Munich SEK,
- four Unterstützungskommandos (USK) (Special Support Groups) attached to the Police Support Group and based in Dachau, Munich, Nuremberg and Würzburg
- and the Alpine Einsatzzug (Alpine Operations Platoon), based in Rosenheim.
Police Support
The Police Support Group HQ (Bereitschaftspolizeipräsidium) in Bamberg employs 6,000 officers and civilian staff at seven Bereitschaftspolizeiabteilungen (BPA), the police schools, the police orchestra and the police helicopter squadron. The BPAs are situated in Munich, EichstättEichstätt
Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...
, Würzburg, Nuremberg, Königsbrunn
Königsbrunn
Königsbrunn is a municipality and the largest town in the district of Augsburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Lech, approx. 10 km south of Augsburg.-History:Königsbrunn is one of the youngest settlements in Bavaria...
, Dachau
Dachau
Dachau is a town in Upper Bavaria, in the southern part of Germany. It is a major district town—a Große Kreisstadt—of the administrative region of Upper Bavaria, about 20 km north-west of Munich. It is now a popular residential area for people working in Munich with roughly 40,000 inhabitants...
and Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Sulzbach-Rosenberg is a municipality in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated approx. 14 km northwest of Amberg, and 50 km east of Nuremberg. The town consists of two parts: Sulzbach in the west, and Rosenberg in the east. Archeological evidence tells, that...
and have 10 companies as the state’s mobile police reserve. The helicopter squadron has nine modern choppers stationed at Munich Airport and Roth Airfield near Nuremberg. Bavaria has two basic training schools, one professional development school and a police dog
Police dog
A police dog, often referred to as a "K-9 dog" in some areas , is a dog that is trained specifically to assist police and other law-enforcement personnel in their work...
school.
River Police
The Bavarian River PoliceWater police
Water police, also called harbour patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables or river police, are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organisation, who patrol in water craft...
is directly subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. The headquarters is in Nuremberg and has 10 river police stations along the Main and Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
rivers and the Main-Danube Canal. It also supports 14 police stations that cover the major lakes in Bavaria.
Neighbourhood Watch
Citizens in Bavaria have been participating in public safety since 1994. This commitment to civic action is seen in the Sicherheitswacht Neighborhood WatchNeighborhood Watch
A neighborhood watch or neighbourhood watch , also called a crime watch or neighborhood crime watch, is an organized group of citizens devoted to crime and vandalism prevention within a neighborhood...
program, where 530 citizens in 58 Bavarian towns (October 2007) voluntarily assist their local police.
Spectacular cases
- November 9, 1923: Attempted putschBeer Hall PutschThe Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
by the NSDAP suppressed by the Bavarian State Police with the ReichswehrReichswehrThe Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
. - May 12, 1972: Bomb attack on the main building of the Bavarian State Investigation BureauLandeskriminalamtLandeskriminalamt - is the German term for a State Investigation Bureau in Germany. LKAs are part of the state police which, in turn, is directly subordinate to the respective state ministry of the interior.-Investigations:...
in Munich by the Red Army FactionRed Army FactionThe radicalized were, like many in the New Left, influenced by:* Sociological developments, pressure within the educational system in and outside Europe and the U.S...
, 3 people were injured and 60 police cars were damaged. - September 5, 1972: Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team during the Olympic Games in Munich, known as the Munich massacreMunich massacreThe Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Members of Black September...
. - August 10, 1994: Discovery of 363 g of plutonium on a smuggler at Munich's Franz Josef Strauss airport; the so-called plutonium affair.
- July 1998: Giorgio Basile who killed 30 people was arrested in Kempten and turned state witness providing testimony for the arrest of 50 Mafia members in Germany.
- January 14, 2005: The fashion designer Rudolph MoshammerRudolph MoshammerRudolph Moshammer was a German fashion designer. He was murdered at the age of 64 in the Grünwald neighborhood of Munich, Germany.- Life :Born in Munich, Germany, Moshammer had an education in retail industry trading...
was found murdered in his house. One day later the murderer was arrested through a DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
analysis match and sentenced to life imprisonment.
See also
- Bavarian Border PoliceBavarian Border PoliceThe Bavarian Border Police is an historic police division within the Bavarian State Police . It was the third arm of the police force alongside the state police and the so-called 'readiness police' It existed from 1946 to 1998 and was responsible for the federal borders in Bavaria.In 1945 the...
- LandespolizeiLandespolizeithumb|[[Germany|German]] police officer in [[Hamburg]]The Landespolizei are the main police forces of Germany. They are under the sole jurisdiction, funded and operated by the states of Germany.-History:...
- Polizeipräsidium MünchenPolizeipräsidium Münchenthumb|Munich Police Headquarters, located at Ettstraße 2-4The Polizeipräsidium München is part of the Bavarian State Police. It consists of 7,100 officers and is located in Munich...
- Joseph Ratzinger, Sr.Joseph Ratzinger, Sr.Joseph Ratzinger, Sr. was a German civil servant, policeman, and the father of Pope Benedict XVI , and Georg Ratzinger; he was also a nephew of the German politician Georg Ratzinger....
- Bavarian policeman