Bavarian State Police

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The uniform patch of the Bavarian Police Force
The uniform patch of the Bavarian Police Force
A Eurocopter EC-135 police helicopter of the Bavarian Police
A Eurocopter EC-135 police helicopter of the Bavarian Police

The Bavarian State Police has approximately 32,000 officers and roughly 5,600 civilian employees and is therefore one of the biggest police forces in Germany. By adopting a coordinated and aggressive approach to crime, Bavaria aims to guarantee public safety and order.

Contents

[edit] Organisation

Bavaria is in the midst of a police reorganisation that aims to reduce bureaucracy by 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, Bayreuth, Regensburg, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Munich and Oberbayern (HQ in Munich) will give way to 10 new areas and the Polizeidirektionen will disappear. [1]

A pilot project began in mid-2005 in Lower Franconia to test the new system which required the rewiring of all police radio and emergency notification networks. The reorganisation is to be complete by the end of 2008. The new Regional Police Authorities will be:

[edit] 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 (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.

[edit] Spezialeinsatzkommando

Bavaria has two SWAT (Spezialeinsatzkommando) teams. One is stationed in Nuremberg for use in the north of the state and one is attached to the Munich police headquarters to cover the south of Bavaria. The SEK of South Bavaria has a mountain detachment for operations in the Alps.

[edit] 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, Eichstätt, Würzburg, Nuremberg, Königsbrunn, Dachau and Sulzbach-Rosenberg 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 school.

[edit] River Police

The Bavarian River Police is directly subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. The HQ is in Nuremberg and has 10 river police stations along the Main and Danube rivers and the Main-Danube Canal. It also supports 14 police stations that cover the major lakes in Bavaria.

[edit] Neighbourhood Watch

Citizens in Bavaria have been participating in public safety since 1994. This commitment to civic action is seen in the Sicherheitswacht Neighborhood Watch program, where 530 citizens in 58 Bavarian towns (October 2007) voluntarily assist their local police. [2]

[edit] Spectacular cases

  • May 12th, 1972: Bomb attack on the main building of the Bavarian State Investigation Bureau in Munich by the Red Army Faction, 3 people were injured and 60 police cars were damaged.
  • September 5th, 1972: Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team during the Olympic Games in Munich, known as the Munich massacre.
  • 10 August 10th, 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 14th, 2005: The fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer was found murdered in his house. One day later the murderer was arrested through a DNA analysis match and sentenced to life imprisonment.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bavarian Interior Ministry news release on reorganisation (in German) http://www.polizei.bayern.de/wir/organisation/index.html/6093
  2. ^ Bavarian Police Neighborhood Watch homepage http://www.polizei.bayern.de/wir/sicherheitswacht/index.html/309

[edit] External links

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