Behörde für Inneres und Sport

Hamburg Waterways Police

The Port of Hamburg is

the largest German seaport
the third-largest European port (after Rotterdam and Antwerp)
number fifteen of the ports wordwide with regards to the container turnover and
the third-largest German inland port (after Duisburg and Cologne)

Ein Streifenboot der Wasserschutzpolizei begleitet einen Containerriesen

As a gateway to the world, a hub for the commerce with all kinds of goods as well as for the worldwide cruise shipping the Port of Hamburg and its environment assign extensive and varied safety tasks and requirements to Hamburg Waterways Police.

The Waterways Police is not only competent for the navigable waters in the town area of Hamburg, but also for parts of the territorial sea and on river Elbe from it’ s estuary upstream to the town Schnackenburg near the region where the three federal states Niedersachsen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg meet.

In these areas Hamburg Waterways Police performs general duties of the police and tasks of the shipping police. Especially the following belong to them:

Ensuring safety and easy flow of the shipping traffic
Ascertainment of dangers to the shipping traffic as well as taking measures for their averting
Prevention and prosecution of crimes and administrative offences
Inspection of ship’s papers, certificates and documents which are to be carried with aboard seagoing ships, inland waterway vessels as well as pleasure craft and harbour craft

Moreover the waterways police is also competent for the

control of border crossing of persons and craft in the Port of Hamburg
supervision of the compliance with national and international regulations on the transport of dangerous goods on the water, the road and the rail network of railways being owned by the Land Hamburg within the territorial area of Hamburg
prevention and prosecution of environmental crimes in the territorial area of Hamburg and all crimes in the port area as well as
all tasks of the road traffic in the port area

At present these duties are performed by approximately 550 officers, male and female. They perform their duties at four waterways police stations, at several special service departments and in a task force for police action and further vocational training.

Head of the waterways police is Chief Constable Frank-Martin Heise, while a staff with the departments personnel, resources, police enforcement and principle and special matters supports him. We are pleased about your interest in Hamburg Waterways Police. Further information on the tasks and competences of the individual agencies you´ll find on the pages in German language.