Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/72

 The German Police.

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THE GERMAN POLICE. By Andrew T. Sibbald. ANY one who has observed the working of the police in Germany must be struck by the wonderfully wide scope of their operations, and the enormous mass of details of every possible kind with which they have to deal; matters, many of them, entirely out side the duties of our police. One would think that for such work men of superior in telligence must necessarily be employed; but this does not appear to be the case. True, there is considerable variety of mate rial. In the large towns, where the police are supplied and maintained by the central government, the "Schultzmann" is a great personage. This is the variety chiefly known to the tourist, and recognizable by his smart long frock-coat, like an officer's undress, his military helmet, and sword. This imposing gentleman is usually a former noncommissioned officer of the army, who, at the end of the regular nine years' service, retired to" this appointment. He is nearly always smart, well set up, and dignified; and though he does not appear to parade his beat in the mechanical fashion we know so well, he yet manages to avoid the ap pearance of idle lounging, sometimes to be observed in this country. These officers are relieved at night by an entirely different set of men, called night watchmen — ordinary citizens, who from dusk till sunrise parade the streets in hideous brass' helmets and a kind of fireman's uniform, thus relieving the others of night-patrol duty. The regular police seem, as a rule, to dis charge their manifold duties quietly, and without unnecessary strictness. The supe rior officials consist, in the large towns, of a police president, or head of the entire police system of the town (of whom more anon), and of a certain number of commissaries

(Commissar), each having his own office and staff in a separate district, where he at tends to the innumerable matters of greater or less importance that come before him, of which, as we shall see, ordinary streetpolice work forms really only a small part. These are very grand gentlemen, hardly to be distinguished at a little distance from military officers, and chosen from a some what more highly educated class. Besides these, there are various officials connected with the force, and charged with particular duties, such, for instance, as the overseeing of town drainage arrangements. One man devotes his whole energies to seeing that dogs in the streets are properly muzzled; and many an encounter this unenviable offi cial would seem to have with tender-hearted ladies, who cannot bear to inflict those in struments upon their pets, or, the only al ternative, to lead them by a chain. Nor are ladies the only offenders, for one gentleman told the writer not long ago, that, in the course of a year, he paid not less than a hundred marks or twenty-five dollars, in fines for this offence, in respect of a favorite collie, which had a knack of escaping from the garden. Here I may mention that, for this and many other offences against public order and convenience—some of which will be mentioned later on—the police have power to inflict summary fines without the formality of a summons before the judge. A policeman calls at your house with a small scrap of paper, called a " strafzettel," on which are set forth the offence and the fine to be levied, with the necessary infor mation, in case you wish to appeal to the court. But if you are a wise man, or un less the whole thing is a mistake, you pay up at once, and get the matter over.