Berliner Polizei

Berlin

Shortly after the revolution, King Frederick William IV of Prussia founded the "Königliche Schutzmannschaft zu Berlin" in June 1848. It was the first modern police force in Germany from the viewpoint of then and today.

In 1936, during the Nazi regime it was dissolved like all other German police forces, and replaced by the Ordnungspolizei or Orpo. The Orpo was established as a centralized organisation uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed forces that had been organised on a state-by-state basis. Eventually the Orpo embraced virtually all of the Third Reich's law-enforcement and emergency response organizations, including fire brigades, coast guard, civil defense, and even night watchmen. It was under the overall command of Heinrich Himmler.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the Reunification of Germany (1990), the West Berlin police, with 20,000 employees, and the East Berlin police, with 12,000 employees; were merged under the direction of the western police chief Georg Schertz.[1] Approximately 2,300 officers changed from the West to the East and approximately 2,700 from the East to the West. 9,600 East Berlin officers were checked to be possible collaborators of the MfS (Stasi). 8,544 of them got a recommendation, 1,056 not. Approximately 2,000 were retired or resigned themselves.

Directorates

Berlin Police is divided into 6 local directorates (Direktion). Each local directorate is responsible for one to three Berliner districts:

   Direktion 1: Reinickendorf, Pankow
   Direktion 2: Spandau, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf
   Direktion 3: Mitte
   Direktion 4: Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Steglitz-Zehlendorf
   Direktion 5: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Neukölln
   Direktion 6: Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Treptow-Köpenick, Lichtenberg

Each Direktion had a couple of Abschnitte (precincts, all in all 38) where the patrol car staff (Schutzpolizei/Schupo) is located. Other sub departments of a Direktion are (not all listed):

• Referat Verbrechensbekämpfung - detective branch (Kriminalpolizei/Kripo) and plain chlothes units of the Schupo.
• Referat Zentrale Aufgaben - central services:
• Verkehrsdienst - traffic police
• Direktionshundertschaft - a company special police
• Diensthundführer - K9

Units

• Landeskriminalamt (LKA): The criminal investigations division is responsible for investigating the most serious crimes (exclusive tasks of the LKA like crimes against the constitution, organized crime, youth gangs or political motivated crime f.e.) and works closely with the six local directorates. The LKA supervises police operations aimed at preventing and investigating criminal offences, and coordinates investigations involving more than one Direktion.

Dedicated to the LKA

• Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK) - The SWAT teams of the German state police. (In Hamburg MEK.)

• Mobiles Einsatzkommando (MEK) - The MEKs are plain clothes teams of the LKA with special tasks like mentioned above and special manhunt units f.e.

• Personenschutzkommando - Personal security plain clothes unit, protecting politicians and VIPs f.e.

• Direktion Zentrale Aufgaben (Dir ZA)

The directorate central operations has the following sub branches:

• Bereitschaftspolizei (BePo) - Uniformed units (two battalions, each with 4 companies and an engineer unit) that provide additional manpower for the Schupo, natural disasters, sporting events, traffic control or demonstrations (riot/crowd control).

• Wasserschutzpolizei (WSP) - The river police for patrolling rivers, lakes and harbours.

• Zentraler Verkehrsdienst - The traffic police with many sub departments for (just examples): Honor escorts during state visits, Autobahnpolizei (highway police), tracing for vehicles without insurance or known drivers without a license, specialized units for the controlling of vehicles with hazardous materials,

• Diensthundführer - K9

• Polizeihubschrauberstaffel Berlin (PHuSt BE) - The Berlin Police run a Eurocopter EC135 helicopter together with the Bundespolizeipräsidium Berlin.

• Objektschutz/Gefangenenwesen - The Berlin Police has a special branch for the guarding of buildings, espacially embassies or watch over and transport convicts. These non-sworn officers are employees with limited police authority. They are armed and wear the same uniform as the Schupo but different rank insignias.

• Zentrale Serviceeinheit (ZSE): The central service unit is responsible for all administrative and logistical support. The general education and training are in charge through the police academy in Berlin.