The

Hessen Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Darm ...

State Police (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Hessische Polizei'') numbers approximately 15,500 police officers and 2,500 civilian employees.

Organisation

The seven regional police authorities are headquartered in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

(Nordhessen),

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

(Mittelhessen),

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. History ...

(Osthessen),

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

(Westhessen),

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

(Südosthessen) and

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

(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 ''Kommissar'', which equals the rank of a lieutenant. This is aimed at making the police profession more attractive and improving promotion chances. Hessen is also one of the ''Länder'' that does not 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. The conversion to blue uniforms was completed in 2009.

Volunteer Police

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.

State Investigation Bureau

The ''

Landeskriminalamt The State Criminal Police Office, or Landeskriminalamt (LKA) in German, is an independent law enforcement agency in all 16 German states that is directly subordinate to the state's ministry of the interior. Missions Investigations LKAs superv ...

'' (State Investigation Bureau) is situated in Wiesbaden and employs 680 officers and civilian staff. Its missions are: witness protection, state security, coordination of

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

(''

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'' ...

'' or SEK) 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 Hessen State Police has two SEKs, one covering the north of the state (based in Kassel) and one covering the south (based in Frankfurt).

Police Support Group

The Police Support Group HQ (''Bereitschaftspolizeipräsidium'') in

Mainz-Kastel Mainz-Kastel is a district of the city Wiesbaden, which is the capital of the German state Hesse in western Germany. Kastel is the historical bridgehead of Mainz, the capital of the German state Rhineland-Palatinate and is located on the right si ...

controls the state’s mobile police reserve, the river police, police orchestra, mounted police center in Frankfurt and police helicopter squadron and has approx. 2,400 officers. The four reserve battalions ''Bereitschaftspolizeiabteilungen'' (BPA) are situated in Mainz-Kastel,

Lich In fantasy fiction, a lich (; from the Old English , meaning "corpse") is a type of undead creature. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term fo ...

, Kassel and

Mühlheim am Main Mühlheim am Main is a town of roughly 28,500 inhabitants on the Main’s left bank in the Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Its municipal area measures 20.67 km² (including outlying centres’ ar ...

. The

river police Water police, also called harbor patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables, river police, or maritime law enforcement or coastal police are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organizat ...

has six stations along the rivers

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the t ...

and

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...

and one for the

Edersee The Edersee, also known as the Ederstausee, is an reservoir in Waldeck-Frankenberg, Hesse, Germany with of storage space. It has the 2nd largest area (behind the Forggensee), and the 3rd largest volume (behind the Bleilochstausee and Rurstause ...

reservoir. The helicopter squadron is stationed at Egelsbach Airfield between Darmstadt and Frankfurt. It has three choppers and one fixed-wing aircraft for missions anywhere in Hesse.

Police Academy

The Hessian Police Academy is situated in Wiesbaden and offers seminars and courses for Hessian police members. A driver training center is located at the former U.S. ammunition storage point in

Hünstetten Hünstetten is a municipality in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring communities Hünstetten borders in the north on the community of Hünfelden, in the northeast on the town of Bad C ...

-Limbach. However, the police training itself is done by the "Hochschule für Polizei und Verwaltung" (University of Applied Sciences for Police and Administration with dependencies in Wiesbaden, Mühlheim am Main, Kassel and Giessen.

External links