Kriminalpolizei

is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal police department for the entire Reich. Today, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the state police perform the majority of investigations. Its Criminal Investigation Department is known as the Kriminalpolizei or more colloquially, the Kripo.The equivalent division of the Norwegian Police is known as Kripos, derived from a similar acronym in Norwegian.FoundationIn 1799, six police officers were assigned to the Prussian Kammergericht in Berlin to investigate more prominent crimes. They were given permission to work in plainclothes, when necessary. Their number increased in the following years.In 1811, their rules of service were written into the Berliner Polizeireglement and in 1820 the rank of Kriminalkommissar was introduced for criminal investigators. In 1872 the new Kriminalpolizei was made a separate branch of police service distinguishing it from the uniformed police called Schutzpolizei.Based on the experience with this new kind of police force, other German states—such as Bremen in 1852—reformed their police forces and by the end of the nineteenth century the Kriminalpolizei had been established nationwide.