North Rhine-Westphalia Police

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The Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW) Police Force is the biggest of the 16 German state police forces due to the fact that almost a quarter of the German population lives in NRW. Roughly 45,000 officers police about 19 million people.

1 Organisation
2 NRW Landeskriminalamt
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Organisation

NRW has 50 police constabularies and the NRW Landeskriminalamt (LKA NRW - NRW State Investigation Bureau). The 21 urban constabularies are headed by a President of Police appointed by the NRW state government and the 29 rural constabularies are headed by the County Chief Administration Officer elected for five years by municipal elections. So the chief of police is always a civilian assisted by a chief police officer responsible for law enforcement operations. These authorities are supervised by the police departments of the five NRW District Governments.

Beside the operational authorities there are three police institutions that support operations and the development of police excellence :

• The NRW Institute for Police Training and Policing Excellence (IAF NRW) provides all basic operational training for police candidates and offers a wide range of vocational training and professional development for all officers.

• The Central Institute for Police Equipment and Technical Service (ZPD NRW) offers technical support, testing and research. It is responsible for vehicle and equipment acquisition and provides IT and communications support.

• The City of Münster in NRW hosts the national German Police Senior Staff College (PFA).

[edit] NRW Landeskriminalamt

The NRW LKA Director is the only police officer leading an operational police authority in NRW and reports directly to the NRW Interior Ministry. Its six operational departments are the state’s central authorities for dealing with serious crime. Department 1 conducts investigations and analysis of organised crime. Department 2 is responsible for state security and investigations of political extremism. Department 3 deals with the analysis and evaluation of crime and works on crime prevention and crime control projects. Department 4 provides operational support. It coordinates the missions, training and equipment for highly specialised operational units, it gives advice to the police commanders at major incidents and provides support to international law enforcement agencies. The department hosts the Central Information Service for Sport Events and the NRW Police Aviation Group. Department 5 is the NRW Forensic Institute. It performs all forensic tests needed for prosecution. About 200 scientists and experts perform roughly 25,000 tests per year. Department 6 has special technical support units that assist other law enforcement agencies with technical or special know-how. This may occur if investigations become difficult e.g. scenes of fire, accidents (explosives, explosive devices) or computer researches etc. The department also has a surveillance team and a target search unit. Although investigations are principally the responsibility of each regional police force, NRW’s LKA investigates and prosecutes crimes if the Police Organisation Act requires it or if the Interior Ministry, Ministry of Justice, a court of justice or a public prosecutor’s office requests its involvement.