Investigator of the public prosecutor's office
The determination of people in the prosecutor's office in Germany are public officials who in imminent danger, the power to order and carry out specific measures for law enforcement have.
definition
The legal institution of the investigator of the public prosecutor's office was created for the case that it is not possible to obtain a public prosecutor's order, or not in time, without endangering the success of the investigation (imminent danger). Investigators of the public prosecutor's office are authorized to order criminal procedural measures that significantly interfere with the rights of the accused . Other public officials are also authorized to take less drastic measures (e.g. eviction , seizure).
The legal basis in federal law is Section 152 (1) of the GVG . The state governments define their investigators by ordinance (usually ordinance on investigators from the public prosecutor's office ). The state governments can in turn delegate the authorization to designate investigators to their state justice administrations . The prerequisite for being granted the status of an investigator is in accordance with the above. Requirement that the candidate service staff members are public service, the 21 years of age and at least two years have been active in the designated civil servant or employee groups.
Such investigators are often police officers, but the forestry service, tax inspection service, border inspection service, mining offices or the forest and fisheries administrations also provide investigators. Furthermore, every employee in a federal state can be declared an investigator by ordinance. For practical reasons, foreign officials can also be appointed to investigate the public prosecutor's office. B. the appointment of water protection police officers of the state of Lower Saxony as investigators of the Hessian public prosecutor's office by Art. II para. 1 sentence 2 of the state contract between the states of Lower Saxony and Hesse on the implementation of water protection police tasks in the river areas of the Weser and Fulda in the state of Hesse dated November 7th / 22nd December 1953.
There is no badge or special ID for the status of an investigator, the police ID card sometimes contains a corresponding statement, depending on the issuer. The majority of the police officers of the middle and high-level service after completing a certain professional practice (see above) become the investigator of the public prosecutor's office. In any case, as a citizen, one can assume that all ranks from the police chief to the first police chief inspector have this quality. The higher ranks are often excluded from the regulations because they are not involved in urgent investigations or delegate such work.
Investigators are specially protected against acts of resistance by those affected by the provision of Section 114 of the Criminal Code.
Relationship with the public prosecutor
It is not a job, but a function that is carried out in personal union with a job. Investigators of the public prosecutor's office are therefore not employees, but rather "assistants" in a public prosecutor's office. The locally responsible public prosecutor's office is originally responsible for ordering and implementing such measures, as it is the “mistress of the investigation”. It has the authority to issue instructions to all investigators in its area of responsibility. The Federal Police is a Federation in its capacity as an investigating person from the competent prosecutor country committed. The function of the person in charge of investigating the public prosecutor's office can be revoked at any time, also verbally (by the employing agency).
Powers
The powers include: a. the arrangement too
- a physical examination of the accused ( § 81a StPO)
- a physical examination of witnesses ( § 81c StPO)
- a seizure ( § 98 StPO)
- a criminal procedural search ( §§ 102 ff. StPO)
- a control body in criminal proceedings ( § 111 StPO)
- a sovereign arrest ( § 127 Abs. 2 StPO)
- a security deposit according to § 132 StPO
- a dragnet ( § 163d StPO)
- arrest if an official act is disturbed ( Section 164 StPO)
There must often be an urgent responsibility ( risk of delay ), cf. Judge's reservation .
A criminal procedure confiscation as a special case of ensuring requires no arrangement skills ( §§ 94, 98 et seq. CCP). Investigators - who are not always police officers - are only entitled to arrest in accordance with Section 127 (2) StPO and to review papers if they are acting on the instructions of the public prosecutor's office (Section 152 (1) GVG).
Group of people
Who belongs to the group of investigators of the public prosecutor's office is determined by who orders the measure (federal / state employee ). Usually these are
- Police officers (with different requirements, e.g. Section 12 (5) BPolG)
- Employee of the financial administration of the federal government ( customs ) and the states ( tax offices )
- Delegate of the Chief Public Prosecutor
- Forest officials of the district service (heads of state or municipal forest districts, colloquially: forester ), with a corresponding function in the private service on request (requirement: forestry training)
- Confirmed game overseers , provided they are professional hunters or forestry trained ( Section 25 (2 ) BJagdG )
- Veterinary and Food Control Administration officials
- Officials of the fisheries administration
- Community enforcement officer in Baden-Württemberg
- Officials of the mining administration ( mining )
- Employed economic specialists of the public prosecutor's office
- German military police officers
- Historically and law enforcement officials were operating assurance service of the Federal Post Office auxiliary officers.
Change of terminology
Investigators from the public prosecutor's office were called auxiliary officers of the public prosecutor's office until August 30, 2004 . The term was modified in the StPO. According to the official justification, the term “auxiliary officer of the public prosecutor's office” no longer does justice to the current function of the police and other enforcement bodies in preliminary and preliminary proceedings, both linguistically and actually.
It is true that the authority to lead investigations remains unrestrictedly incumbent on the public prosecutor's office, with regard to the level of training and advanced training that the investigators have now achieved and the fact that the police have grown out of a merely subordinate auxiliary function, is replaced by the outdated term of “Auxiliary officers” using the term “investigators” aptly characterizes today's relationship between the public prosecutor's office and the police and takes the reality of the investigation into account.
See also
- Administrative assistance in Germany
- Preliminary investigation
- Measure (law)
- Police (Germany)
- Criminal Procedure Law (Germany)
- Enforcement assistance
Web links
- BT-Drs. 15/3482 : Official justification for the change of term (1st Justice Modernization Act) ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2198 , PDF file; 134 kB)