The State Minister for the Interior (German: Senator für Inneres) oversees the Hamburg Police, which consists of aviation, water, road and port patrols, and crime investigation.

[4] The night watch, Wedde, Prätur, port patrol, and later police were supported by the military.

In 1842 the police consisted of 48 men and 425 members of the night watch, whilst Hamburg had a population of 200,000.

After the First World War, riots and civil disorder caused the reinforcement of the police with soldiers and militia.

During the annexation of Austria from 2,614 policemen 1,000 participated in the Verladeübung (embarkation exercise) of total 20,000 men.

All units took repressive measures against the civil population or were in combat against the regular Polish army, guarded prisoner-of-war camps, participated in drumhead courts-martials, performed with the SS the so-called resettlement of the native populations, executed the so-called hostages, and carried out Jew hunts and mass shootings.

[9] For example, on 13 July 1942, the Hamburg Reserve Police Battalion 101 companies stationing in Zamość, Biłgoraj, Radzyń Podlaski and later in Łuków County, under the command of Major Wilhelm Trapp executed 1,500 Polish Jews, men, women and children in the forest near Józefów, Biłgoraj County.

[10] On 19 August 1942, the 2nd company of Battalion 101 executed in a mass shooting action some 1,700 Jewish people from Łomazy according to German documents, aided by Ukrainian Hilfswillige known as Trawnikis.

[10] After the war, Trapp and several others were investigated by British authorities and Polish Military Mission and extradited to Poland in 1946.

Since the 1980s the Hamburg State Ministry of the Interior researched the history of the police force during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.

[5] In their research Norbert Steinborn and Karin Schanzenbach — later published as a book titled Die Hamburger Polizei nach 1945 — ein Neuanfang, der keiner war — (The Hamburg Police after 1945 — a new beginning that was not) — described the situation of the police force after the Second World War, the process of denazification, the development up to the North Sea flood of 1962 and the following incorporation of the police into the State Ministry of the Interior.

In 1945 head of the police was the British Colonel Michel O'Rorke, chief of the Public Safety Branch.

Units are among others the Criminal Investigation Services (Kriminalpolizei), the Special Task Force (Spezialeinsatzkommando) Special Weapons and Tactics Unit and Mobile Surveillance Task Force (Mobiles Einsatzkommando) The Polizeiverkehrskasper, is a Punch used in kindergartens to educate children since 1948.

Its responsibilities are to avert danger, to maintain the public security, to render assistance, and the provision of information.

Law enforcement in general under the oversight of the prosecutor, prosecution of infractions, traffic control, and administrative assistance are also tasks.

Its tasks are defined in the Gesetz zum Schutz der öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung (SOG)[22] — the state law of the protection of security and order — for acts to avert danger, and the Federal Strafprozeßordnung (StPO) (Code of criminal procedure),[23] for the law enforcement itself.

(in German)) selling T-shirts;[26] Jürgen Roland's 1960 film Polizeirevier Davidwache describes the work at the police station;[27] also the film Fluchtweg St. Pauli — Großalarm für die Davidswache (International title: Hot Traces of St. Pauli, UK: Jailbreak in Hamburg) (1971) featured the station;[28] the documentary Meine Davidwache from 2008;[29] and the book Einsatz auf St. Pauli Geschichten aus der Davidwache by Ingeborg Donati and Thomas Mettelmann describe the all-day work of police officers.

One is located at the mouth of the Elbe river in Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony, and another is a sub-station in Lauenburg, a town in Schleswig-Holstein.

[5] In 1997 the government of Hamburg decided to build a new headquarters at the area of the stand-by police in Alsterdorf quarter.

The financing model for police equipment was new to Germany, private economy granted a passive credit to the government of Hamburg, so all uniforms could be changed at once.

[35] Hamburg's Polizeieinsatzfahrzeuge — the formal name for patrol cars — are called "Peterwagen", because of a misunderstanding between a German clerk and a British officer.

[36] The Hamburg Police has often been criticized for single incidents like arrests, conduct during demonstrations, or false radar speed checks.

On 8 June 1986, the Hamburg Police closed in on 861 protesters and contained them in the open area of the Heiligengeistfeld for 13 hours.

On Sunday, 8 June, several people of the anti-nuclear movement wanted to protest against the police actions.

were sentenced legal wrong, by the Hamburg regional court, and all involved were adjudged a solatium of DM200.

The 4 police leaders of the Hamburg pocket were declared guilty of deprivation of personal freedom, but only admonishment and had to pay a fine.

[39] In 1994 a Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuss (PUA) (parliamentary commission of enquiry) was installed after the resignation of the State Minister for the Interior Werner Hackmann, because of several accusations of xenophobia, with assaults and alleged police brutality.

[41] During the investigations, State Police Colonel Heinz Krappen resigned too, but some accusations turned out to be wrong.

The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Landesamt für den Verfassungsschutz) is Hamburg's domestic intelligence agency.

[24] A company of the German military police (4./FJgBtl 151) is stationed at the Reichspräsident-Ebert-Kaserne (Imperial President Ebert barracks) in the Altona borough.