Hessen State Police

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Hessen’s Polizei numbers approx. 17,000 police officers and 2,000 civilian employees.

The seven regional police authorities are headquartered in Kassel (Nordhessen), Giessen (Mittelhessen), Fulda (Osthessen), Frankfurt, Wiesbaden (Westhessen), Offenbach am Main (Südosthessen) and Darmstadt (Südhessen). Following a police reform in 2001, the regional police authorities are now directly subordinate to the Interior Ministry.

The State Police Commissioner’s post became a “political” appointment and one to which police officers can be appointed (unlike in the other states). For the state and regional police commissioners and their respective deputies, Hessen has a policy of “duality” meaning that if the top official is a police officer, the deputy will be a public administrator (usually ex-law grad) or vice versa.

Another Hessen innovation is the abolition of the “green star” ranks meaning Hessen’s police officers start to work the road as Kommissars. This is aimed at making the police profession more attractive and improving promotion chances. Hessen is also one of the Länder that doesn’t train its cadets through the Bepos but has its own department at the state College of Public Administration and a professional development school, both directly responsible to the state police commissioner. In 2005, Hessen state government decided to change to blue police uniforms and adopt blue livery for police vehicles.

Citizens also participate in public safety. This commitment to civic action is seen in the Volunteer Police program, where some citizens voluntarily assist their local police. The volunteers are trained for 50 hours, receive a blue uniform, pepper spray and a mobile phone. Their main duty is crime prevention: conducting walking patrols to deter street crime, patrolling near schools and kindergartens and maintaining contact with potential victims of crime and juvenile delinquents. People can also join the Wachpolizei which has less competencies (and less pay) than regular police to perform basic police tasks such as traffic or guard duties, releasing regular officers for patrol work.

The Landeskriminalamt (State Investigation Bureau) is situated in Wiesbaden and employs 680 officers and civilian staff. Its missions are: witness protection, state security, SWAT (Spezialeinsatzkommando) team operations, undercover investigations, statistics, monitoring the development of crime, crime prevention, criminal investigations analysis, exchange of information with foreign countries and forensic science.

The Police Support Group HQ (Bereitschaftspolizeipräsidium) in Mainz-Kastel controls four Bereitschaftspolizeiabteilungen (BPA) with the state’s mobile police reserve, the river police, police orchestra, mounted police center in Frankfurt and police helicopter squadron. The BPAs are situated in Mainz-Kastel, Lich, Kassel and Mühlheim am Main and the Hessen Bepo has approx. 2,400 officers. The river police has six stations along the Rhine, Main, Fulda, Werra and Lahn rivers and one for the Eder Lake. The helicopter squadron is stationed at Egelsbach Airfield near Darmstadt and has six choppers for missions anywhere in Hessen.