Structure and the Effectiveness of Germany's Police/Law Enforcement - Essay Example

This paper discusses the structure and the effectiveness of the country’s police/law enforcement. In the Federal Republic of Germany, there are a combination of various powers that have either national, international or state responsibilities of maintaining public order and security/offering the country’s law enforcement services. The responsibility for upholding of public order and security is shared out between the Republic and the sixteen federal states, also known as Bundeslaender. The Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), the Federal/nationwide Police (Bundespolizei), and the State Police (Laenderpolizei) are the main policing bodies (Interpol, 2012).

The Landespolizei As a Federal Republic, Germany consists of sixteen states (Laender).  Every state has its own state Police, referred to as Landespolizei. Every Landespolizei is in charge of its own policing affairs and is administered in a different way, because the duties of the police lie within the federal states’ jurisdiction as the Constitution of Germany indicates (Osce.org, 2006). The Bundespolizei This is a nation-wide operational police force, which is in charge of domestic safety.

It has approximately forty thousand employees, with over thirty thousand of them operating as fully trained policemen. Being part of the Ministry of Interior of Germany, the Bundespolizei is the country’s uniformed police force that offers rescue helicopter service; border security; reserve forces to take care of emergencies demonstrations, or disturbances; passenger and transportation security on German railways as well as at international airports; coast guard services, comprising of national sea-borders and land borders’ surveillance; and foreign embassies and federal buildings’ protection (Interpol, 2012).

The Bundeskriminalamt This is the country’s central office for communication, intelligence, and police information between the federal states and the federation in every criminal police issue. Headed by a President and two Vice Presidents, it comprises Germany’s National Central Bureau for ICPO-Interpol – the International Criminal Police Organisation. The Bundeskriminalamt is responsible for all critical crime investigations and organizes crime control activities at the national level and supports all Federal police forces.

 Moreover, it serves as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of Germany (Osce.org, 2006). In the event that criminal investigations assume an international dimension, German Police forces, which include Landespolizei call upon the Bundeskriminalamt, which is part of the Ministry of Interior. When international communications, searches and investigations require it, the Bundeskriminalamt is capable of taking direct action through its coordination and operations center (Interpol, 2012).

The Bundeskriminalamt has offices in Meckenheim, Berlin, and Wiesbaden and it hires over five-thousand people, about half of whom are fully-trained criminal law enforcement officers, and who possess specialized expertise and knowledge in the areas of administration, information technology and criminal sciences. It draws the rest from seventy diverse professional groups (Osce.org, 2006). As far as prosecution in Germany is concerned, Strasbourg (2002) explains that offices of the public prosecutor are criminal justice entities of independent liabilities with reference to the courts and