The Saarland

Saarland

Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...

 Police is one of the smallest German Landespolizei

Landespolizei

thumb|[[Germany|German]] police officer in [[Hamburg]]The Landespolizei are the main police forces of Germany. They are under the sole jurisdiction, funded and operated by the states of Germany.-History:...

forces with approx. 2,700 police officers. As in Hesse and Rheinland-Pfalz, the Saarland Police is abolishing the “green star” ranks meaning their new police officers start to work the road as Kommissars. This reform aims at making the police profession more attractive and improving promotion chances.

Organisation

The state police falls under the jurisdiction of the Saarland

Saarland

Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...

 state interior ministry and has two main police authorities, the Landespolizeidirektion (LPD) which is the state police headquarters and the State Investigation Bureau (Landeskriminalamt

Landeskriminalamt

Landeskriminalamt - is the German term for a State Investigation Bureau in Germany. LKAs are part of the state police which, in turn, is directly subordinate to the respective state ministry of the interior.-Investigations:...

or LKA), which are both located in Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....

.

The Landespolizeidirektion consists of four departments, the Police Support Group (Bereitschaftspolizei

Bereitschaftspolizei

The Bereitschaftspolizei are the support and rapid reaction units of Germany's police forces...

), Services, Traffic Police and Investigations. The Police Support Group consists of the state's rapid reaction company, police dog section, the police band and the river police station in Beckingen

Beckingen

Beckingen is a municipality in the district Merzig-Wadern, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 7 km southeast of Merzig, and 30 km northwest of Saarbrücken. There is an old train station ruin and in summer there are lots of festivals. The temperature there...

 that patrols the Saar

Saar River

The Saar is a river in northeastern France and western Germany, and a right tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Vosges mountains on the border of Alsace and Lorraine and flows northwards into the Moselle near Trier. It has two headstreams , that both start near Mont Donon, the highest peak...

 and Moselle in Saarland. Police stations are located in Merzig-Wadern

Merzig-Wadern

Merzig-Wadern is a Kreis in the northwest of the Saarland, Germany. Neighboring districts are Trier-Saarburg, Sankt Wendel, Saarlouis, and the French département Moselle, and Luxembourg.-History:...

, St. Wendel, Neunkirchen

Neunkirchen, Saarland

Neunkirchen is a town and a municipality in Saarland, Germany. It is the largest town in, and the seat of the district of Neunkirchen. It is situated on the river Blies, approx. 20 km northeast of Saarbrücken. With about 50,000 inhabitants, Neunkirchen is Saarland's 2nd largest city...

, Saarpfalz

Saarpfalz

Saarpfalz is a Kreis in the south-east of the Saarland, Germany. Neighboring districts are Saarbrücken, Neunkirchen, Kusel, Kaiserslautern, Südwestpfalz, district-free Zweibrücken, and the French département Moselle.-History:After the Treaty of Versailles, the Saar basin was placed under the...

-Kreis, Saarlouis

Saarlouis

Saarlouis is a city in the Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis. In 2006, the town had a population of 38,327. Saarlouis, as the name implies, is located at the river Saar....

, Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....

(city) and Saarbrücken (region).

Approx. 400 investigators and forensic scientists work for the State Investigation Bureau.

Vehicles

In the Saarland, which is adjacent to and historically closely tied to France, vehicles made by French companies, as well as European Ford, are often used as police cars. The Saarland Police registers its new vehicles with the state government license plate combination SAL 4 - XXXX. SAL stands for Saarland Landesregierung (Saarland state government), 4 denotes police and XXXX is a combination of four numbers.

Uniforms

At present (March 2010) the Saarland state government is not intending to convert to blue police uniforms as is happening in other states and so Saarland will be one of only two German states to keep the green/khaki uniform.