High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Law enforcement in Germany is constitutionally vested solely with the states, which is one of the main features of the German political system. Unlike in the United States, there is no Police Force belonging to a city or town. Also there are no elected Positions (e.g. Sheriff in the U.S.). Policing has always been a responsibility of the German states even after 1871 when the country was unified. The 1919 constitution of the Weimar Republic did provide for the possibility of creating a national police force, should the necessity arise, but it was only in the Nazi era that state police forces were unified under central control and a national police force created. The police became a tool of the centralized state and the Nazi party. Following the defeat of 1945, Germany was divided; in 1949 the three western zones were turned into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Each country pursued a different path concerning law enforcement.