Law enforcement agency

Law enforcement agencies ( law enforcement agencies ) is a functional term for various authorities whose job it is to keep track of offenses. You get the prosecution of suspects.

These include especially the public prosecutors and the police ( in Germany the state police, the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police ), but also the customs administration as well as in the area of ​​tax law, the tax authorities with their tax investigation services.

The police is usually the one law enforcement agency that obtained from the first note of a crime suspect, for example through a criminal complaint. It then has to investigate the facts in the course of an investigation. Although independently determines in practice the police to a certain process status, this process step is conducted legally by the prosecution, which is authorized to issue instructions to a competent police. One speaks in this respect by the prosecution as " mistress of the investigation ."

Law enforcement authorities shall apply the law of criminal procedure in Germany therefore primarily the Code of Criminal Procedure, to. You are bound by the principle of legality, which states that in principle any suspicion of a crime of its own motion must be investigated, notwithstanding that there is a discretion of the authority.

Law enforcement authorities are not in the true sense. Rather, they are authorities of the judiciary, the police and the tax authorities that perform a similar function.