Saxony State Police (German: ''Polizei Sachsen'') is a state law-enforcement agency in Saxony, Germany. It is subordinate to the Saxony State Interior Ministry. The Chief of State Police (Landespolizeipräsident) is Horst Kretzschmar and the political head is the Minister for the Interior in Saxony Roland Wöller ( CDU).

Organization

The head office is the Chief of State Police, Horst Kretschmar, in Dresden. The University of the Saxon Police Force (Hochschule der Sächsischen Polizei) is the central institution for the education of police officers of State Police, located in Rothenburg and

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...

. The office of the Anti-Riot Police Saxony (Bereitschaftspolizei Sachsen) is located in Leipzig. The President of Saxony Anti-Riot Police is Dirk Lichtenberger.

Equipment

In 2018, the organization adopted the

Heckler & Koch VP9 The Heckler & Koch VP9 (known as SFP9 in Europe and Canada) is a polymer-framed semi-automatic striker-fired handgun. The VP designation in the name refers to ''Volkspistole'', which translates to “civilian pistol” (literally “people’s pis ...

semi-automatic pistol as the standard side-arm. The Riot Police Saxony operates a small air force department with three EC135

police helicopters Police aviation is the use of aircraft in police operations. Police services commonly use aircraft for traffic control, ground support, search and rescue, high-speed car pursuits, observation, air patrol and control of large-scale public events ...

History

In 1936, all local police forces in the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...

were reorganized by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

and headed by Reichsführer SS and Chief of Police

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

. All state police offices in Saxony became part of Geheimen Staatspolizei in Berlin. After WWII, Saxony was part of the

Soviet Military Administration in Germany The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (; ''Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya v Germanii'', SVAG; , SMAD) was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin- Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone in German ...

and all local police offices (Volkspolizeiämter) became part of what later became

Volkspolizei The (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the or VoPo, was the national uniformed police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a highly- centralized agency re ...

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

. The Soviet officers preferred antifacists to become police officers. In 1990, the Saxony State Police was recruited from former Volkspolizei officers.

References

{{Authority control State law enforcement agencies of Germany Organisations based in Dresden Government of Saxony