Baden-Württemberg Police

Baden-Württemberg Police is a state law-enforcement agency in Germany. It numbers approximately 25,000 police officers and 7,000 civilian employees.

The four regional police authorities (called ''Landespolizeidirektionen'' in BW) are headquartered in Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Freiburg and Tübingen. There is also a separate police authority for the city of Stuttgart. Following a police reform in 2005, the regional police authorities are now part of the regional government authorities (''Regierungspräsidium''). The autobahn and river police stations were reorganized from separate authorities and integrated into the respective local police departments.

Citizens also participate in public safety. This commitment to civic action is seen, for example, in the Volunteer Police program, where approximately 1,200 citizens voluntarily assist their local police in 20 towns. These volunteers are specially trained, wear uniforms and are armed. 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.

The ''Landeskriminalamt'' (State Investigation Bureau) was founded in 1952, is situated in Stuttgart and employs 520 officers and 430 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 Göppingen is the recruiting and training agency for the BW police and controls five rapid reaction battalions (''Bereitschaftspolizeidirektionen'') (BPD), the SWAT team and the state police band. The BPDs are situated in Bruchsal, Göppingen, Biberach, Lahr and Böblingen and have approximately 4,000 officers as the state's mobile police reserve and school training staff.

There are eight river police stations in Baden-Württemberg along the Rhine and Neckar rivers and on Lake Constance. The aviation unit falls under LPD Stuttgart and has eight modern helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft based at Stuttgart Airport and Baden Airport near Söllingen. Two of the helicopters are EC 155 transport versions and six are MD 900/902 police operation models. Three are equipped with night-sun and video/night-vision equipment.

Tasks

Some of the main tasks of the Baden-Württemberg Police is the prevention of danger and disturbance and maintenance of public safety, as a part of domestic security. They prevent and intervene in unlawful activity of any kind, regulate traffic control, and receive emergency calls.

Uniform

In 2007, the state government decided that the Baden-Württemberg Police would change from their original green uniforms to blue uniforms and patrol vehicles. The uniform change-over would occur between 2009 and 2011 to minimise the cost of the conversion. Beginning 1 July 2008, the new uniforms were given out to some departments, such as the district of Hohenlohe or Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, as a trial. During 2010/11 the new uniforms were introduced statewide.

Warrant card

Formerly the warrant card was made out of green linen paper and could be folded. In 2011 a new card was introduced in credit card format. Along with the color change of the police from green to blue the card was colored in blue. A hologram in star shape should make it tamper-proof.

Vehicles

Overall, the Baden-Württemberg police has about 5,300 vehicles.

Motor vehicles

Since 2011, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are used as service vehicles.

Beginning in mid-2010, a total of 1038 vehicles, including 99 VW Golf and 17 VW Caddy in a neutral varnish and 922 Mercedes-Benz C-Class, including 118 police vehicles, were leased for 36 months. In the second installment of 2011, a total of 1691 vehicles, including 1094 Mercedes-Benz e220 CDI T patrol cars and 423 Mercedes-Benz C 220 CDI and 174 VW Golf Variant were leased for 36 months.
The vehicles of the Baden-Wuerttemberg Police are uniformly licensed under "Business Administration 4-XXXX". "BWL" stands for Baden-Württemberg state government. The number "4" stands for the Interior Ministry. The Stuttgart Regional Council uses the digits from 1000 to 2999, the regional council in Karlsruhe 3000-4999, the police headquarters in Stuttgart 5000-5999, the Regional Council of Freiburg, 6000-6999, the Regional Council of Tübingen 7000-7999, and the riot police 8000-8999.

File:Mannheim - Polizei Mercedes.JPG, Mercedes-Benz Police patrol vehicle of the State Police of Baden-Württemberg with blue-silver livery, seen in Mannheim.
File:Camionnette de police à Pforzheim.JPG, Police vehicle Mercedes-Benz Vito in Pforzheim (Baden-Württemberg)
File:Snowmobil polizei.jpg, Snowmobile Ski Doo Alpin II Lenzkirch Police post at the Feldberg (Baden-Württemberg)

Aircraft

The helicopter fleet of the helicopter squadron of the Baden-Wuerttemberg police, was completely overhauled between 2001 and 2003. Currently, the Baden-Wuerttemberg police has two Eurocopter EC 155 and five McDonnell Douglas MD 902 Explorer craft. One McDonnell Douglas MD 902 Explorer was lost due to a crash.
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On 5 December 2013, the purchase of six new EC 145 T2 helicopters by the end of 2016 was announced at the value of 60 million euros by the Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg.

File:Polizei BW MD 902 D-HBWC STR.jpg, A helicopter of the Baden-Württemberg police

Boats

The Baden-Wuerttemberg water police has a total of 16 heavy and 14 light patrol boats of various types, and 16 rubber dinghies are also used.

File:Friedrichshafen Polizeiboot.jpg, Water Police boat WSP 21 on Lake Constance at the exit from Friedrichshafen

See also

*''Landespolizei''

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baden-Wurttemberg Police
Organisations based in Baden-Württemberg
Government of Baden-Württemberg
State law enforcement agencies of Germany