City Police
A city police is a communal institution that, depending on the country, performs police tasks differently .
In many countries, the responsibility for police tasks also lies with the administrations of the cities and municipalities, which then often have their own uniformed police forces . Mostly they implement community law, occasionally also superordinate law. Such police forces are often very visible in the cityscape because they are generally responsible for regulatory and traffic police matters in the city or municipality.
In most countries there are nationwide laws and regulations that regulate the scope of police responsibility of the municipalities and ensure a certain degree of uniformity in the police organization. The police forces of individual municipalities in one and the same country can differ greatly in their outward appearance (such as uniforms ). Classic examples are the Italian Polizia Municipale , the Spanish Policía Local or the Swiss municipal police .
Historically, Germany also had its own police force in the municipal offices in the recent past. Recently, too, as part of reforms of local law in individual federal states , city or local police forces have come into being, which are subordinate to the local administration of a municipality.
Germany
Before the reform of the police system in the Weimar Republic , the police in most of the German federal states were organized on a municipal basis, and the policemen were employees of the municipalities. In addition, there were state-wide police and gendarmerie authorities at the state level, from which the state police, which are still classic in Germany today, emerged after the First World War.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, all of the existing city police forces , some of which were not established until after 1945 based on requirements from the Western occupying powers , were nationalized in the 1960s and 1970s, most recently in 1975 by the Munich city police . There were no municipal police forces in the Soviet occupation zone or the GDR .
In North Rhine-Westphalia a discussion developed, whether the designation city police should be reintroduced. The background to this was efforts to give the municipal regulatory authorities more authority and to introduce a suitable common name for the field service of these authorities. In addition, the municipal regulatory authorities are increasingly performing police tasks in practice. The increase in municipal law enforcement services observed nationwide can be seen as part of the restructuring of the German police force. Since KODs function practically as a kind of "city police", there is a diversification of police work and thus a reversal of the unification efforts of the 1970s in police law.
For this reason, too, long-term efforts are being made to shape the partly unstructured training in the municipal security service (KOD) or as a "security police officer" (Hesse) through a 3-year professional training program in accordance with the BBiG. A corresponding draft has existed since 2016.
The annual federal congress on communal order serves as an exchange platform for the authorities operating in Germany.
Baden-Württemberg
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Up until the 1970s, some large cities in Baden-Württemberg , for example in Karlsruhe , Mannheim and Stuttgart , had a city police in addition to the state police. The Stuttgart city police were the last municipal police in Baden-Württemberg to be nationalized.
In Baden-Württemberg the members of the community enforcement service have the status of a police officer within the scope of tasks assigned to them. This status allows, for example, the punishment of administrative offenses, the search of people and objects, the issuing of evictions and the use of direct coercion. In addition, the employees can be appointed investigators for the public prosecutor's office, which entitles them, among other things, to collect security.
The tasks for the municipal enforcement service can be very extensive and result from those that are directly assigned to the local police authority or that have been approved by the regional council. The delegation of tasks to the community enforcement service results from § 31 DVO Police Act BW and thus leads to factual jurisdiction, for example in the case of disturbances of the peace, harassing behavior due to drunkenness or so-called aggressive begging.
A common name in Baden-Württemberg for the community enforcement service , especially if it has extensive police powers, is the municipal security service (KOD). Most of these services also carry the designation police authority , since they perform police tasks according to § 60 PolG BW or are locally responsible as local police authorities. In the major cities of Baden-Württemberg in particular, KODs act as a kind of new city police.
Due to their legal position, KODs in Baden-Württemberg are exempt from gun regulations under Section 55 (1) WaffG. The services regularly carry batons, irritant spray devices and hand clasps with them. Firearms are also sold in Stuttgart .
Since 2014 there has been a one-year special course for prospective KOD workers at the Karlsruhe Administrative School , in which almost all larger municipalities participate.
Bavaria
By order of January 21, 1946, “land police (s) based on the country” were set up in the countries of the American occupation zone . Accordingly, municipal police forces could be set up in Bavaria in municipalities with more than 5000 inhabitants. This was then regulated accordingly in the Bavarian Police Organization Act of 1952. Since these municipalities were cities in almost all cases , their name was accordingly city police (exception: municipal police , e.g. in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ). The municipal police in Munich was z. B. responsible for the entire urban area of Munich. The offices of the Bavarian city police were transferred to the Bavarian State Police in the 1960s and 1970s . Most recently, on October 1, 1975, the city police of the state capital Munich was transferred to the Munich Police Headquarters .
Since 2018, the municipal field service (KAD) has again been a kind of city police, at least in Munich .
Bremen
In Bremerhaven , there is still a local police as part of the National Police of Bremen . It belongs to the Bremen police , but is partly subordinate to the local magistrate . This is represented by the Bremen police in public and towards the State and Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The local police authority has its own management staff and is further subdivided into protection, criminal and administrative police. The latter corresponds to the regulatory office of the municipalities of the regional states and is therefore part of the city administration and therefore performs tasks in the sense of a city police. There are four police stations in Bremerhaven. In addition, the Bremerhaven local police authority has its own traffic police with its own special vehicles and a crime museum.
Hesse
→ Main article: Ordnungspolizei (Hessen)
After a change in the Hessian Hazard Defense Act, the community employees who are hired as auxiliary police officers were allowed to call themselves "Ordnungspolizeibeamter". " Ordnungspolizei " was therefore introduced as the name of the authority . Organizationally, the Ordnungspolizei is affiliated with the Ordnungsamt, but in contrast to the Ordnungsamt itself, the Ordnungspolizei is a police authority. The police officers of the cities and municipalities are treated on an equal footing with law enforcement officers.
Especially in Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt , however, there were protests against the naming, as the term “ Ordnungspolizei ” had been used under National Socialism for an organizational form of the police. The inscriptions were then changed in Darmstadt to Kommunalpolizei ( Kommunalpolizei Darmstadt ) and in Frankfurt am Main ( Stadtpolizei Frankfurt ) and later also in Offenbach and in the state capital Wiesbaden to City Police .
However, the city of Fulda and some other communities in Hesse continue to use the term "Ordnungspolizei". The designation “city police” or “local police” is gradually finding its way into cities and communities.
The Frankfurt City Police is a nationwide pioneer in terms of scope of duties, training and equipment standards.
North Rhine-Westphalia
In North Rhine-Westphalia , thought was also given to the name city police , as many municipalities already carry out enforcement tasks in their area in uniform. This field service is often called the municipal security service . The relevant legislation has not yet been changed. That is why the old name is still used.
Saxony
According to the Saxon Police Act, the municipalities are local police authorities. Since 1991, the municipalities have been empowered by an ordinance issued by the Ministry of the Interior to delegate police enforcement tasks to municipal law enforcement officers. Until 2016, however, they did not use the term “police” outwardly, but simply appeared as a “public order office”. In Dresden and Chemnitz , the municipal enforcement service of the public order offices has been using the designation "police authority" on vehicles and uniforms since 2016. In Dresden she maintains a special task force that is also on duty on weekend nights. In both cities, the municipal law enforcement officers are equipped with batons, and in Dresden they are sometimes even equipped with alarm guns or pepper ball weapons. The Leipzig Public Order Office followed suit with a corresponding change of name in 2018.
Switzerland
In Switzerland, the tasks of the uniformed police officers are carried out by the cantonal and communal or city police. As a rule, it is subordinate to a municipal security or police department .
The largest city police in Switzerland is the Zurich city police . Other city police forces with expanded police skills are Lausanne, Baden, St. Gallen and Lugano as well as the Winterthur city police force . The city police in Lausanne, Winterthur and Zurich use their own criminal or investigative services.
Police reforms
Canton Aargau : At the beginning of the new millennium, the Aargau government formed regional police forces, each of which centered on former city or municipal police forces: Aarau, Baden, Brugg, Bremgarten, Frick, Klingnau, Lenzburg, Muri, Rheinfelden, Reinach, Seengen, Untersiggenthal, Wettingen , Wohlen and Zofingen. There is also the Suret Police Association and the completely newly created Rohrdorferberg Regional Police.
Canton of Bern : In a referendum on March 11, 2007, the people of Bern decided to integrate the Bern city police into the cantonal police corps on January 1, 2008. By 2011, all communal corps in the canton of Bern are to be united in the Police Bern unified police (the Bern cantonal police).
Canton of Graubünden : In the large, heavily compartmentalized canton, communal autonomy is very important, and so is police sovereignty within the canton. Graubünden city police: Chur (Coira), St. Moritz and Arosa.
Canton Schaffhausen : In the canton of Schaffhausen there was a city police in the cities of Schaffhausen, Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Stein am Rhein until 2002. From 2002 the city police of Schaffhausen and Neuhausen were merged with the former canton police of Schaffhausen to form the Schaffhausen police. However, the Schaffhausen City Police still exist. It performs local police tasks. The Stein am Rhein city police are still independent and, with two police officers, they are probably the smallest police force in Switzerland.
Canton of Solothurn : Since 2005, the government has been calling for a unified police force. This idea was abandoned in 2009, the cities did not want to relinquish their police skills. From January 2010, the cantonal Solothurn police leadership will be tightened, the city police corps Solothurn, Grenchen and Olten will remain.
Canton Ticino (Ticino): Lugano, Locarno, Bellinzona and several municipalities have their own corps.
Canton of Neuchâtel (Neuchâtel): The Neuchâtel city police are to be integrated into the cantonal police corps by 2014, as has already happened with the city corps of Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Canton of Vaud (Vaud): The Vaudois vote on the creation of a unified police force on September 27, 2009 failed: the cantonal police federalism will be reorganized, but the municipal police powers will largely remain in place. The most important corps is led by Lausanne . Other Vaudois corps are the city police of Yverdon, Montreux and Morges.
Canton of Wallis (Valais): In the fragmented mountain canton there are numerous municipal police forces. Urban corps are Sion (Sion), Martigny, Siders (Sierre) and Brig.
Canton of Zurich : In 2001, voters rejected the creation of a unified police force. Since then, in addition to the canton police, the Zurich city police and the Winterthur city police have been operating in accordance with the Police Organization Act of 2006. In addition, around forty other city and community police forces , including that of Uster, operate on their municipal territories.
The exact number of constituted Swiss city and community police forces cannot be given, the rules and organizations are too different. The fact is, however, that the Swiss Association of City Police Chiefs has around a hundred members.
Austria
In Austria , municipalities, mostly cities, can set up their own municipal guard. In the Security Police Act , these guards are therefore not referred to as city police; the correct designation is community guard or community security guard . There are currently community guards in around 50 communities. In addition to the federal police, community guards have full security police powers within their area of operation - the community area. They are not to be confused with the police inspections of the Federal Police that exist at community level .
The employees are community employees and used to be recruited from former federal gendarmerie or security guards , now from former employees of the federal police.
In cities where the respective State Police also safety authority 's first instance, no wax body may be used by other local authorities, such as the community, to be built. This applies to most statutory cities , including all of the provincial capitals except Bregenz , as well as the federal capital Vienna . Therefore, the Mobile Surveillance Group (MÜG) in Innsbruck , the Klagenfurt Ordnungsamt , the Graz Ordnungswache , the Ordnungswache in Wels and the Ordnungsdienst in Linz ( Ordnungsdienst der Stadt Linz GmbH ) are not community guards , but special institutions whose precise design and powers differ from the city very different to city.
As part of the Austria Convention , there were also considerations to abolish the municipal guards, on the grounds that a single, nationwide guards would actually be created in order to place the monopoly of force and thus internal security completely in the hands of the federal government. However, these efforts were rejected because of the protests on the part of the federal states and the city or municipal federation.
Other states
Brazil
A total of more than 120,000 Guardas Municipais are used throughout Brazil . There is a struggle to transfer additional skills.
France
In France, the municipal or city police are called police municipale and are subordinate to the mayor. Particularly after the murder of the unarmed city police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe , a nationwide arming of the French city police was discussed.
Italy
In Italy the municipal or city police is called Polizia Municipale (or Polizia Locale ) and is subordinate to the mayor or city council. The Italian regions or the autonomous provinces (e.g. South Tyrol ) are responsible for the legal regulation in this area . The old name, no longer used today, was Vigili Urbani .
Israel
In Israel , so-called Sayar units (שיטור משולב) have been used by the municipalities in large cities for several years. These should create an additional uniformed presence, especially in the evening and night hours.
Namibia
In Namibia in 2004 was in the capital Windhoek , the city police Windhoek founded. It performs police tasks to maintain general safety and road safety.
Netherlands
So-called handhaving or Buitengewoon opsporingsambtenaar have been operating in the Netherlands since the late 1990s .
Poland
In Poland, the city police are called straż miejska and the municipal police are straż gminna and can be reached nationwide on 986. It is subordinate to the respective municipal council.
Spain
In Spain, many cities and towns have local police forces, often called Policía Local or Policía Municipal . The Guardia Urbana in Barcelona is worth mentioning with its appearance reminiscent of British police uniforms. German-speaking holidaymakers are particularly well-known to the local police stations that are widespread in the Balearic Islands, for example on Mallorca, and everywhere in Spain. The vehicles of these police forces are painted in the Mallorcan island colors, the respective municipal coat of arms serves as a badge.
Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, the city police is called Městská policie (colloquially měšťáci ) and the municipal police in small communities is called Obecní policie . It is subject to the respective municipal council. The powers of the municipal police are limited compared to those of the state police . The main tasks of the community police are the enforcement of local legal regulations (especially parking bans and speed limits) as well as of night rest and public order in the respective community or city. The city police can be reached nationwide on 156 (State Police 158).
Slovakia
In Slovakia, the city police are called mestská polícia and the municipal police in small communities are called obecná polícia . The legal basis and the tasks of the Slovak city police are similar to those of the Czech city police. Nationwide, the city police can be reached under the telephone number 159 (State Police 158).
United States of America
In the United States of America, the general police tasks in almost all cities are taken over by city police departments ( Metropolitan Police Departments , also becoming city marshals or town marshals ).
Only in rural areas, or if the city has not set up its own police department, is the county responsible for these tasks (generally the county sheriff , for serious crimes also the district attorney investigators ), on highways the state ( State Police or Highway Patrol , less often also State Patrol , depending on the state). There are also numerous federal police forces , but these are each responsible for very specific tasks in the federal interest and usually do not do general police work.
The largest city police force and also the largest police agency in the country is the New York Police Department .
The literal translation of "city police" is not identical in content with local regulatory authorities in other countries. It is to be specified in such a way that the American city police are not only responsible for regulatory and traffic police matters, as in other countries, but even take on the main police tasks (including law enforcement ). The purely regulatory and traffic law tasks of the city police in Germany, for example, are more likely to be taken over by city auxiliary police or regulatory authorities (depending on the municipality, Auxilary Police , Code Enforcement Officer or Meter Men ) in the USA .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The new policeman - politics. Retrieved April 29, 2020 .
- ^ Karlsruhe city police at Stadtwiki Karlsruhe
- ^ Municipal security service Mannheim at the Rhein-Neckar-Wiki
- ↑ polizei.bayern.de (accessed January 30, 2018)
- ↑ Three times as many new sheriffs. March 27, 2017, accessed April 29, 2020 .
- ↑ City Guard & Ordnungspolizei. March 12, 2018, accessed August 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Section 64 (1) No. 4 SächsPolG
- ↑ Ordinance of the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior on the execution of police enforcement tasks by municipal enforcement officers from September 19, 1991.
- ^ Matthias Roth: After Donnerwetter von Ulbig - This is how security services differ in Leipzig and Dresden. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. (online), September 6, 2017.
- ↑ Robert Nößler: Leipzig's new "city police" is here - what changes as a result. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. (online), February 21, 2018.
- ↑ Examination of the mobile monitoring group (MÜG) of the city of Innsbruck. In: Municipal Control Committee of the City of Innsbruck. Retrieved November 24, 2012 .
- ↑ Ordnungsamt is installed ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ New security guard in Wels. In: ORF. Retrieved December 4, 2010 .
- ^ City guard: Linz law enforcement officers sworn in. In: Upper Austrian news. Retrieved December 4, 2010 .
- ^ San Diego District Attorney, Bureau of Investigation, District Attorney Investigator Jobs
Web links
- IPA list of community security guards in Austria
- Website of the Swiss Association of City Police Chiefs
- VAG Association of Aargau City and Regional Police
literature
- Abt, Jan et al. Dynamic arrangements of urban security - actors, cultures, images, Springer VS, Wiesbaden, 2014
- Balzer, Christoph Kommunale Ordnungsdienste , Kommunal- und Schul-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2019
- Beck, David The re-municipalization of police activities by means of municipal security services - a case analysis using the example of Baden-Württemberg , Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft, Frankfurt am Main, 2018
- Donnelly, Daniel Municipal Policing in the European Union - Comparative Perspectives , Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, 2013
- Eikenaar, Teun Municipal disorder policing - Dealing with annoyances in public places , Eleven International Publishing, Den Haag, 2017
- Laue, Nadine: Formation of the Bremerhaven local police authority (1945 to 1947) . (= Series of publications by the German Society for Police History, Volume 15). Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-86676-295-4 .
- Lehmann, Fritz: The Police Compass - A Guide to the Federal Police Landscape in Switzerland. Swiss Police Institute, Neuchâtel 2007, ISBN 978-2-940385-10-2 .
- Jürgen W. Schmidt : The municipal police in Prussian small and medium-sized towns and their problems from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. In the S. (Ed.): Police in Prussia in the 19th century. Ludwigsfelder Verlagshaus, Ludwigsfelde 2011, ISBN 978-3-933022-66-0 , pp. 8-46.
- Terpstra, Jan et al. Who Patrols the Streets? , Eleven International Publishing, The Hague, 2013
- Tuchscherer, Lisa Stadtpolizei instead of Police , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 2017