North Rhine-Westphalia Police
The North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) State Police Force is the largest of the sixteen German state police forces with 50,000 personnel. Organisation. Constabularies. NRW has 47 police constabularies. The 18 urban constabularies are headed by a President of Police appointed by the NRW state government and the 29 rural constabularies are headed by the county chief administration officer elected for five years by municipal elections. So the chief of police is always a civilian assisted by a senior police officer responsible for law enforcement operations. These authorities are supervised by the State Agency for Central Police  Services (LZPD) in Duisburg. State Investigation Bureau. The NRW "Landeskriminalamt" in Düsseldorf (LKA NRW) is NRW's State Investigation Bureau. Although investigations are principally the responsibility of each regional police force, NRW’s LKA investigates and prosecutes crimes if the Police Organisation Act requires it or if the Interior Ministry, Ministry of Justice, a court of justice or a public prosecutor’s office requests its involvement. Its director is the only police officer leading an operational police authority in NRW and reports directly to the NRW Interior Ministry. Its six operational departments are the state’s central authorities for dealing  with serious crime. Water police. The state's Water police ("Wasserschutzpolizei") is centrally organized and patrols over 900 km of waterways. Its headquarters is in Duisburg as part of Duisburg Constabulary and it has stations ("Wasserschutzpolizeiwache") in Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Wesel, Emmerich, Münster, Minden, Bergeshövede, Datteln and Essen. The force has 24 boats and patrols the Rhine, Weser, Ems and Ruhr (as far as Essen) rivers and the North German canals. Highway Patrol. Highway Patrol ("Autobahnpolizei") duties are conducted from bases in the five biggest local police districts - Cologne, Düsseldorf, Münster, Dortmund, and Bielefeld. Support institutions. Besides the operational authorities  there are three police institutions that support operations and provide training and development: