Polizei is the German word for

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

. Police in Germany, Austria and Switzerland consist of different agencies. It might refer to:

National agencies

Bundespolizei (Germany) The Federal Police (''Bundespolizei'' or BPOL) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the German Federal Government, being subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (''Bundesministerium ...

, Federal Police of Germany *

Bundespolizei (Austria) The Federal Police ( de-AT, Bundespolizei) is the national and principal law enforcement agency of Austria. The Federal Police was formed in July 2005 as one formal unit of police. In 2005, the Federal Police replaced the Austrian Federal Gendarm ...

, Federal Police of Austria *

Bundeskriminalamt (Germany) The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (in German: ', abbreviated ') is the federal investigative police agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It is headquartered in Wiesbaden, Hesse, and mai ...

, Federal Criminal Office of Germany, comparable to the FBI *

Bundeskriminalamt (Austria) The Directorate General for Public Security (''Generaldirektion für die öffentliche Sicherheit'', "GDföS") is the governing body of general law enforcement in Austria and a division of the Ministry of the Interior. It oversees the Federal Polic ...

, Federal Investigation Bureau of Austria *

Polizei beim Deutschen Bundestag Polizei beim Deutschen Bundestag ( en, Police at the German Bundestag), also known as Parlamentspolizei or Bundestagspolizei, is a separate police force for the premises of the Bundestag (the German parliament's lower house) in Berlin. The police ...

, the German Parliament Police

State agencies

Landespolizei ''Landespolizei'' (; ) is a term used to refer to the state police of any of the states of Germany. History The ''Landespolizei'' of today can trace its origins to the late 19th century, when Germany united into a single country in 18 ...

, state police of Germany * Landeskriminalamt, an independent agency in most German states that is subordinate to the state ministry of the interior

Police units

* Autobahnpolizei, highway police * Bahnpolizei, railway police * Bereitschaftspolizei, police support group and riot police of Germany * Kriminalpolizei, criminal Investigation Police in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; similar to the British Criminal Investigation Department * Schutzpolizei, a branch of the Landespolizei, the state (land) level police of the German states *

Spezialeinsatzkommando ''Spezialeinsatzkommando'' (SEK, "Special Task Force") are police tactical units of each of the 16 German State Police forces. Along with the ''Mobile Einsatzkommando'' (MEK), ''Personenschutzkommando'' (bodyguards), and the ''Verhandlungsgruppe'' ...

, specialized operation armed response units of the sixteen German state police forces * Wasserschutzpolizei, water police that patrols the waterways, lakes and harbours of Germany

Defunct agencies

* Volkspolizei, the People's Police in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) * Transportpolizei, the transit police in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) * Polizei der Freien Stadt Danzig, state constabulary of the Free City of Danzig, including the ''Sicherheitspolizei'' (1919-1921) and the ''Schutzpolizei'' (1921-1945) *

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction w ...

, regular police force of National Socialist (Nazi) Germany ** 4th SS ''Polizei'' Panzergrenadier Division, SS unit formed by Ordnungspolizei members *

Sicherheitspolizei The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...

, secret police in Germany until the outbreak of World War II *

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

(Geheime Staatspolizei), secret police of the Nazi regime *

Geheime Feldpolizei The ''Geheime Feldpolizei'', short: ''GFP'' (), , was the secret military police of the German Wehrmacht until the end of the Second World War (1945). Its units carried out plain-clothed security work in the field - such as counter-espionage, ...

, secret military police of Nazi Germany * Preußische Geheimpolizei, the Prussian Secret Police {{disambiguation