NCJ Number
145002
Date Published
1993
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Marked by a highly decentralized structure, German police look forward to being part of the supranational European police force; despite some reforms, including a modernization of police methods, German police remain decentralized and concentrate their efforts on responding to calls.
Abstract
The German police comprise 16 regional forces, or "länder," plus several federal institutions including the Budeskriminalamt and the Bundesgrenschutz. Over the past 20 years, the trend has been to integrate these forces through legislation establishing a variety of rules under which police operate. A parallel tendency has been that of centralizing authority for collecting and coordinating information under the Budeskriminalamt and for standardizing the operations of the autonomous länder police forces. Yet reform in Germany has not yet changed the closed nature of police organizations, and the idea of civilian review boards has been rebuffed. Despite rises in the number of police per inhabitants, the police have faced increasing problems in the areas of delinquency, terrorism, drug trafficking, and organized crime. Problems posed by rightist attacks on immigrants are likely to increase, as are other problems related to the globalization of crime and organized crime. Thus, interest in a European police force grows. Footnotes and references