Kriminalpolizei
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Kriminalpolizei is the usual designation of the criminal investigation services in the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
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[edit] Germany
The Criminal Investigation Department of Germany's federal states' police forces are called Kriminalpolizei or simply Kripo . They are organized variously according to state law and report to their state's interior ministry. Investigators with the Bundeskriminalamt or the investigating units of the Bundespolizei are usually not referred to as Kripo.
As policing in the Federal Republic of Germany is primarily a matter of the states (Landespolizei) , the state Kriminalpolizei services have responsibility for the vast majority of criminal investigations.
Kripo candidates are mostly regular state police officers who have done well in police school and in their first years of street duty. After rigorous screening and examination, a small number are chosen to receive a technical education in criminology at a police college. Those completing the course then serve a three-year apprenticeship before attaining full status as an investigator. Transfer to the Kripo from federal police bodies is possible but rare.
The Kriminalpolizei’s detectives work in plainclothes and investigate crimes and incidents. They interview victims and witnesses, collect evidence and interrogate suspects in a continual effort to solve crimes and arrest perpetrators. Detectives also work to locate missing persons and recover stolen property. Investigators may be assigned to precinct detective squads or one of dozens of specialized investigative units that have borough, citywide or regional jurisdiction.
Joint investigation teams are often formed with federal police and customs investigators to combat drug smuggling or organised crime activities.
The police departments have separate Staatsschutz departments within the Kripo to investigate politically motivated crime. German intelligence agencies have no executive police powers. Their operatives are not authorized to carry out arrests, searches of premises, interrogations or confiscations. If they establish that judicial or police measures are required, they hand the matter over to the courts, public prosecutors or Kripo state security (Staatsschutz) officers who decide independently what action is justified.
[edit] The origins
In 1799 six police officers were assigned to the Prussian Kammergericht (superior court of justice) in Berlin to investigate more prominent crimes. They were given permission to work in plainclothes, when necessary. Their number increased in the following years.
In 1811 their rules of service were written into the Berliner Polizeireglement (Berlin Police Regulations) and in 1820 the rank of Kriminalkommissar was introduced for criminal investigators. In 1872 the new Kriminalpolizei was made a separate branch of police service distinguishing it from the uniformed police or Schutzpolizei.
Based on the experience with this new kind of police force, other German states - such as Bremen in 1852 - reformed their police forces and by the end of the nineteen century the Kriminalpolizei had been established nationwide.
[edit] Kripo in Nazi Germany, from 1936 to 1945
In 1936 the Kriminalpolizei, the professional detective service of Germany, was taken over by the SS. The Kriminalpolizei was commanded by Artur Nebe until 1944, when Nebe was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944. In the last year of its existence, the Kripo was commanded by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, as before indirectly through the RSHA.
The Kriminalpolizei typically worked in conjunction with the Ordnungspolizei with administrative needs furnished by the SS-Hauptamt. The Kripo was organized in a hierarchical system, with central offices in all towns and smaller cities. These, in turn, answered to headquarters offices in the larger German cities which answered to the Central Office of the Kriminalpolizei, considered a sub-office of the RSHA.
The Kriminalpolizei was mainly concerned with serious crimes such as rape, murder and arson. A main area of the group's focus was also on "blackout burglary", considered a serious problem during bombing raids when criminals would raid abandoned homes, shops and factories for any available valuables.
Kripo members were considered full members of the Allgemeine-SS but could also hold corresponding Orpo rank. Most Kripo detectives referred to themselves by police investigator titles such as Kriminalrat, instead of SS or Orpo rank. The Kripo was also one of the manpower agencies upon which the Einsatzgruppen were formed and several senior Kripo commanders, Artur Nebe among them, were assigned as Einsatzgruppen commanders.
The novel Fatherland, set in an alternate history where Germany won the Second World War, focuses around a central character (Xavier March) who is a Sturmbannführer in the office of the Kriminalpolizei. Artur Nebe also appears in the novel as an Oberstgruppenführer, still serving as the commander of the Kripo 20 years after the end of World War II.
