The Cantonal police are the law enforcement agencies for each of the 26 Swiss Cantons

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

. Law enforcement in Switzerland is mainly a responsibility of the 26 cantons of Switzerland, which each operate cantonal police agencies. Some cities also operate municipal police agencies as provided for by cantonal law. The federal government

Federal government of Switzerland

The federal government of Switzerland may refer to:* the Swiss Federal Council or* the federal administration of Switzerland....

 provides specialised services and is responsible for the protection of the Swiss border.

The 26 cantonal police agencies and numerous municipal police agencies are the backbone of Swiss law enforcement. They are not subordinate to federal authorities. Their commanding officers report to the head of the respective cantonal or municipal department of police, who is a member of the cantonal or municipal governing council.

Police training is conducted in cantonal service academies and at the Interkantonale Polizeischule Hitzkirch, a joint police academy of twelve police agencies established in 2007. Throughout Switzerland, the police may be reached by the emergency telephone number

Emergency telephone number

Many countries' public telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number, sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or occasionally the emergency services number, that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency telephone number may...

 1-1-7

1-1-7

117 is the national emergency telephone number for the Philippines. It is managed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government and is also referred to by its official name, Emergency Network Philippines . Colloquially, it is also called Patrol 117, the name used by the Philippine...

.

Organization

Currently, the police authority is exercised by the cantons, which are considered sovereign states within the Confederation. The organization of cantonal police forces generally reflects that of the country whose language is the primary language of that canton.

In the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

-speaking cantons, the police are divided into two sections:

• the gendarmerie, a uniformed organization which performs the tasks of police patrol and response, and may conduct judicial enquiries. However in certain cantons, the gendarmes have the ability to conduct local or judicial enquiries.
• the sûreté
  Sûreté
  Sûreté is a term used in French speaking countries or regions in the organizational title of a civil police force, especially the detective branch thereof.-France:...
  
  ('security' or 'safety'), civil investigators who work in the Criminal Investigation Department
  Criminal Investigation Department
  The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
  
   (average and serious crime)

In German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

-speaking cantons, the police are divided into three sections:

• the kriminalpolizei
  Kriminalpolizei
  is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
  
  (criminal police), who investigate crime and conduct criminal investigations (similar to the sûreté).
• the schutzpolizei
  Schutzpolizei
  The Schutzpolizei , or Schupo for short, is a branch of the Landespolizei, the state level police of the German states. Schutzpolizei literally means security or protection police but is best translated as Uniformed Police....
  
  ('security' or 'protection' police), who respond to emergency calls and conduct patrols (similar to the gendarmerie).
• the autobahnpolizei
  Autobahnpolizei
  Autobahnpolizei is the term in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland for the highway patrol. Heavy traffic and high-speed accidents resulted in the creation of special police units to patrol the expressways known as Autobahnen....
  
  (highway patrol
  Highway patrol
  A highway patrol is either a police unit created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways, or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency that is primarily concerned with such duties.Duties of highway patrols or traffic...
  
  ) who enforce traffic laws and investigate road traffic accidents.

In Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

-speaking cantons, the police are divided into geographical areas.

External links

• Links of Cantonal police