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Patrol car markings have changed from green & silver to blue & silver.
From BGS to BPOL-learn about the evolution of Germany's federal police force.
The Bundespolizei i» Germany's primary federal police force. Under the German constitution, Basic Law, each of the 16 federal states of Germany has the right to police itself. Because of this, each state has its own state police force. However, in the early post- World War II days, a federal equivalent to our FBI, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA), was created.
In 1951, the Federal Border Protection Force (Bundesgrenzshutz, or BGS) was established with 10,000 police officers. A little later, it took over the German Passport Control Service. BGS later became the backbone of a reorganized federal police force known as the German Federal Police or Bundespolizei (BPOL).
Currently, the BPOL has about 41,000 employees, including 33,000 police officers. Of these officers, about 21,000 deal with border protection, railway security and aviation security. As many as 1,500 officers work in special units such as the Aviation Service, GSG 9, and as naval police which are part of Germany's Coast Guard. The BPOL operates under the Federal Interior Ministry's jurisdiction.
Basic training for a police officer lasts two and a half years. Part of this is conducted in the Federal Police centers for basic and advanced training; practical training is received in different district offices, somewhat like our Field Training Officer programs. This training is the same for every federal police officer: border police, railway police and airport security.
The federal police do not have the power to call up the state police forces of the individual federal states, but such help can be requested. For example, because the BPOL is responsible for the security of railway transport, it works with the police of the federal states in the transportation of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is gathered at German power plants and transported to Gorleben by rail. Historically, mis nuclear waste transport was met with both peaceful and violent protestors who destroyed railroad tracks and committed other acts intended to sabotage the delivery of the waste.
German Border Police
The Bundesgrenzshutz (BGS) was actually West Germany's first armed service for border and internal security. Although described...