Wasserschutzpolizei

The Wasserschutzpolizei (WSP - literally translated "Water Police Force" in German) is the water police that patrols the waterways, lakes and harbours of Germany around the clock. The WSP are part of the Landespolizei (State Police). The Federal Police (Bundespolizei or BPOL) maintains 16 patrol craft and helicopters are part of the Coast Guard (Küstenwache) and assigned to coastal BPOL stations. The watercraft include six offshore patrol vessels, e.g. those of the Bad Bramstedt class, as well as a number of fast inshore vessels and one tugboat.

Germany has about 7,500 km of navigable waterways that are responsible for about 30 percent of goods transported. The heavy commercial traffic and increasing recreational boat traffic requires police supervision. In case of shipwrecks, often involving hazardous materials, they are responsible for warning other shipping. The WSP also often performs other duties such as enforcing environmental laws.

These police officers in Navy-like uniforms often have inland or maritime shipping experience and are trained at the German Water Police School (Wasserschutzpolizeischule) in Hamburg. For practical reasons the WSP of one state may have jurisdiction in the territory of another state (for example, the Hamburg WSP is in charge of a section of the Elbe River that spans the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hamburg.)

The Baden-Württemberg WSP is decentrally organized and attached to the police departments whose area of operations their stations are located in. Baden-Württemberg Police changed to this structure in 2005. There are eight river police stations in Baden-Württemberg along the Rhine and Neckar rivers and on Lake Constance.

The Bavarian River Police is part of the Bavarian State Police. The Bavarian River Police Centre is part of the Central Franconia Police HQ and is in Schwabach. The centre supports nine river police stations along the Main River, Danube and the Main-Danube Canal as well as 14 police stations with water police missions on the 25 largest lakes in Bavaria.

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