NCJ Number
131472
Journal
Kriminalist Volume: 22 Issue: 7/8 Dated: (Juli/August 1990) Pages: 315-318
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The article analyzes the ratio of criminal investigators to other police forces in West Germany and argues that the number of criminal investigators must be increased.
Abstract
Statistics from 1989 indicate the great inconsistency in the ratio of all-around police officers to criminal investigators in the different West German states, for example, 88 to 12 in Bavaria, but 81.3 to 18.7 in Niedersachsen. States which transfer relatively few cases to criminal investigators, for example, Bavaria, assign fewer criminal investigators to open police positions than States which frequently involve criminal investigators. Beyond that, the authors could not find any rationale according to which free positions were filled with criminal investigators or regular police forces. Most disturbingly, police leaders seemed to have no method of determining how many criminal investigators are necessary for successful crime combat. The authors argue that if each State established logical criteria for distributing police personnel, the need for more criminal investigators would become obvious. Some statistics included.