Fighting Crime and Preventing Threats

The federal and state police forces work closely together in preventing and investigating crime. According to Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law, the 16 federal states are generally responsible for police matters. For this reason, each of the 16 federal states has its own police force whose powers are defined in one of the 16 different state laws on the police. The state-level police forces are made up of the uniformed police, the criminal investigation department and the public order support forces.
However, the Basic Law assigns certain areas of policing to the federal level. The two federal police forces are the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police (BKA). Both belong to the remit of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. The BKA is primarily concerned with fighting serious and organised crime and with state security. The BKA’s area of responsibility therefore includes politically motivated crime, terrorism, drug crime and internet crime. The Federal Police are responsible above all for border and railway policing and for aviation security.
Fighting crime always involves not only punishment, but also prevention. Security research, crime prevention programmes offered by the police and the professional analysis of crime trends and criminal phenomena are all important elements of prevention.