American Reacts Spend a day with the German Autobahn police 

I am a experienced retired german police officer and police trainer. In my opinion US police has some fundamental problems. The selection and the training in the US is poor. A person who wants to become a german police officer has to pass a difficult test and psychological review. The paid fulltime training last about three years. Another difference concerns police tactics. In Germany, proportionality and de-escalation play a major role. In the USA, it is very much about self-protection, enforcing and intimidation. Another difference is that German police officers always work in pairs. This also leads to less aggressive behavior and therefore less difficult or panicky behavior on the part of citizens who are being controlled.

There is no general speed limit, but around 40% of the whole length of german Autobahnen has speed limits for different reasons.

The Polish driver wasn't pulled over just because he was Polish. An enormous amount of international traffic drives go through Germany.

American police are more like an occupying army and its citizens are treated as hostiles. European police are seen as overseers and see themselves as responsible for the safe functioning of its citizens

A big differences between US and German police is the training time. In the US the Police training is around 20-30 weeks (ie, less than a year). In Germany the Police training is 3 to 3,5 years. And the majority of that time is NOT spent on the shooting range but rather on learning for example conflict resolution.

We had American cops training in our town in Germany. They couldn´t believe how lightly armed German cops were, but ALSO how much more training they got.

the Road Safety Report 2018 from the World Health Organisation listed the trafficdeath put the US on place 4 with 12,4 death per 100.000 inhabitans Germany, on place 32, has only 4,1 death per 100.000

You are right that Polizei, Police, Polis, Politi, etc. is pretty much the same word in many countries. It stems from Latin, which again got it from Greek. Origin is Greek "Polis" meaning "City". Latin "Politia" - meaning "citizenship/public administration". and so on I believe the modern usage comes from France ca. 17th century. Relates modern words would of course be "Policy", "Politician", "Metropolis", "Cosmopolite/an". And even "policlinic" (lit. "city bed").

I’ve done 140mph on the autobahn going to Poland, and it’s the most alive you will ever feel. The drivers are very disciplined over there too

As an American living in Europe . The traffic laws are simply followed and respected. Let alone drivers train for 6-12 months in all weather conditions for a drivers licenses and pay around 1500-3000 euros for a license . Not like the USA were everyone takes a bs drivers test and gets a license within 30mins . I think USA should adopt these practices for young drivers . Side not : I love driving on the AUTOBAHN in my Mercedes at top speed . Everyone should try it !

9:22 There is that old joke that heaven was a place where the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, the mechanics are German, the police are British and all is organised by the Swiss. Whereas hell is a place, where the chefs are British, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the police German and all is organised by the Italians. A current update to this joke would be that hell is a place where the police is USAian. I think they should change their ubiquitous motto from "to serve and to protect" to "to intimidate and to oppress".

A word to the pulled out Poland Truck ... they are infamous and are watched by the police for a good reason. The are called the "Polen-Sprinter". The drivers are either poor guys or ignorants. Usually, they don't (can) care about pauses and drive-time restrictions and are driving through Europe and doing delivering jobs, no decent transport company would do. They seem to try to underrun the controls and are using partly not the Autobahn. I heard an example that one driver drove a damaged piece from Germany to the south of Italy, it was in short time fixed and he drove it back instantly. Usually, this job would have taken 3 or 4 days, it was done in 2. Just think about, what could have happened, if he would have fallen asleep and caused an accident.

HI Connor, it's all about training in Europe police are trained to de-escalate their training is much longer as an example in Germany, The degree is divided into three study phases with a 12-month basic study period in the 1st year, a 6-month extension studies and two 3-month internships in the individual police service in the 2nd year, and a 12-month specialized course in operations, investigations, and traffic and transport. whereas in the US On average, US officers spend around 21 weeks training, external before they are qualified to go on patrol.

Polizei (pol-ee-tz-eye) is the word for police in most Germanic languages. In Sweden it's spelled polis. In Spain they use Gardia (civil guards), as does Ireland with its Garda. The French use Gendermerie (people of arms), and in Welsh it's Heddlu (peace keepers).

When a word is used in mayn languages it comes from Greek or Latain. "Etymologically, the term Polizei comes from the ancient Greek πόλις polis, “city”. The derivation πολιτεία politeía, “state administration”, was first adopted in Late Latin as politia, later the spelling changed to policia"

Polizei is a German word, the origin of all the different words for police is the Greek "polis", which means city - so a police officer is a servant of his city/country.

In the USA, police training lasts, on average, 15-16 weeks. In Germany the training lasts 30 months. That says it all already.

In germany we have much less (deadly) accidents than in the US. With european countries that have a general speed limit, there are some, that have more and some with lower casualties. But speed is not the only reason to consider. Also the road conditions, abilities of the drivers and the safety of the cars are have to be thought of. In Germany on average all these things are at the very high end. Most (deadly) accidents in Germany don't happen on the autobahn though. They occur on the smaller country roads which have a speed limit of 100 km/h (62mph) but are more curvy and two-way traffic in general. So yes, high speed can lead to accidents and death, but most of the time it is EXCESSIVE speed that is not adapting to the traffic conditions that causes problems. Even in germany u have to adjust your speed to the surroundings. Speeder don't do it now and they won't with a general speed limit. But it will hurt all those, that are responsible drivers and like to go a bit faster when the conditions are good.

Check out Sabine Schmitz ( RIP). The Z in German is pronounced as ts, it is TSeitgeist. Greetings from the Netherlands.

I think the better question is... why do americans call it "police" since english comes from european languages?

in France, Police recruits go to a police training school for one year and go through practical training for another year. In order to become a qualified Police Officer in the UK, you must pass fitness and medical tests. If you currently possess appropriate Level 3 qualifications, you must also complete a degree-level Professional Policing qualification, which typically takes two to three years to complete. Depending on what you choose after completing your sixth-form education becoming a police officer in the UK might take anywhere from two to three years.

I tested the maximum velocity for every car i had on the autobahn when it was empty. I travel on the autobahn with high speeds but think that safety is not inly about speed but about following the rules and always checking your surroundings. You have to know what is going on not just in front of you, but also behind you. Also i think everybody should do Fahrsicherheitstraining (Drivesagetraining) every few years. Then you can handle your car in every situation.

7:00 In Germany/Europe, blood alcohol is usually given in ‰ (per mille = 1/1000) and in the USA in % (percent = 1/100). Of course the UK has something different

In the UK you have to wait 20 minutes until after your last drink before you can be breathalysed to get rid of the alcohol vapours in your mouth.

I think that it has a lot to do with the training, why European and US police officers are so different. As an example, to become a police officer in Germany, you have to complete 3 years of learning and exams. in contrast, in the United States you only need 500 hours to become a police officer, which is more than half less than what it takes to become a hairdresser, they have to receive at least 1300 hours of training. In other words: If you are not on a tree at 3, you can become a policeman at any time!!

Hungarians say : rendőrség. Don’t try to say it.

In Luxembourg it is now Police. There used to be to organisations Police who were local and Gendarmerie who were national.

To the origins of Polizei or Police: Simple - the word comes from ancient greek Polis, means city or state. Later, the word shifted from the municipality to the ovicials, the civil or public servants. Due to the different languages and the age of the word, its obvious that the name is shifting thru the languages and times.

In Germany, blood/breath alcohol levels are in per-mille not percent. So, that was only 0.03 per-mille, which would be 0.003 in the US. A limit of 0.5‰ in Germany would be 0.05% in the US. The slogan of the Police in Germany is "Your friend and helper."

as a german, I'm not aware of any other countries (that don't speak german), that use "Polizei" for "police". The danish say "politi", the dutch say "politie", the swedes say "polis", The polish say "KURWA"

Regarding the high speed debate... In Germany there are 4 deaths on the roads per 100.000 compared to 12 in the US.

The origin of the word "police" comes from the Greek word "politeia", which means "state power". This shows what the police are responsible for: public safety and order.

In Germany and the other European states it is important that truck drivers are rested and that they manage to reach their destination without risk. A truck can cause a lot of damage if it gets into an accident.

In europe cops are more chill because they dont have to fear tjat anyone can and will pull a gun on them. America is just a brutal and paranoid place in this perspective

Polizei, is pronounced 'Politz(i)' with the 'I' at the end said as we would pronounce the letter. In France it's also 'Police' unless it's the Gendarmerie nationale who are paramilitaries. Polizei is used in German speaking countries other than Switzerland who use the Anglo-French name, at least on their vehicles, presumably due to having four official languages? Scandinavian countries have variations "Polis"

One thing most Americans wouldn't enjoy in Germany: Cops can pull you over without a reason. You're required to give a cop your ID as well. Crime or not.

In France it's called 'Gendarmerie' but the word for Police is pretty similar in germanic languages, also in english, which is a germanic language as well.

not even 1% carry a weapon

In Poland the blood alcohol level over 0.25 will get you in trouble, half of the German one.

Having lived in Germany a while my opinion is that the difference between German and American police officers is that Germans are less afraid to confront citizens, and less afraid that a confronted citizen pulls out a gun and starts shooting. That they work in rotating pairs (also for legal reasons) makes them much more secure and they see the citizen less as the potential enemy.

In Germany police is portrayed as "Polizei - dein Freund und Helfer" which translates to "Police - your friend and helper". So yes, most "cops" are good people and most people don't have issues with them.

Accident statistics show that accidents depend less on general speed limits than on the quality of driver training, vehicle condition and the quality of the roads. For this reason, Germany has relatively fewer accidents than most countries with general speed limits.

Check the 417km/h on the Autobahn amazing Stuff

No its total different. Here in The Netherlands we call it Politie. But where I born italy we call it polizia, and there we can call it also carabinieri.

No real universal speed limit, only several speed restricted areas where often you'll get flashed when speeding

the german police slogan is, "the police. your friend and helper"

(1:40) You don't say ‘Polizei’ in the following countries: Denmark: politi Sweden: polis The Netherlands: politie France: police

An ego trip is the words you were looking for

"Polizei" in Germany, "Police" in France (and Belgium and Luxembourg), "Politie" in the Netherlands, "Polis" in Sweden, "Politiet" in Norway, "Polizia" in Italy, "Policia" in Spain ... Why "Polizei" in Germany? Different countries use different languages I guess ;) No seriously: all the words for police have the same (ancient) greek origin: "Polis" meaning city or state or citizenship. The word "politics" has the same origin.

In Europe usually you just don't have to fear the police, if you haven't done anything bad. In Germany we have a saying "Die Polizei, dein Freund und Helfer." - 'The Police, your friend and helper.'

So many nations call law enforcement agencies with words similar to „Polizei“, because that word originates from Greek and Latin terms. So all languages that date back to Latin will have such terms.

The word “police” and its many variations basically comes from the ancient Greek word “polis” for “city” or “community”. The term "police" actually originates from Greek πολιτεία (politeía) for "state administration". It has been adopted from French into the English language for the administration of public order and law-enforcement in a community since the late 17th century.

For driving with a high speed, you have to stay alert all time; also for drivers driving a lower speed. They are all less distracted.....

Compared to other EU countries with speed limits, Germany has one of the lower death rates, both per capita and much more important for billion km driven, with currently being about 1,3 deaths per billion km. Frace as a similar country has quite substantian higher numbers. The difference is that the Autobahns are build to handle the speeds safely, and the drivers education is excellent, rigerous and costly. Compared to US, most european drivers have much higher driver education, and a drivers license is not seen as a right, but a privelege.

A few years ago as I was in driving school, my driving teacher let me do almost 300kmh on the autobahn, 185mph, that was crazy!

To become a police officer in Germany, you have to make a 3 year „Ausbildung“-aprenticeship or „Duales Studiun“ coorporate study depeneding on what carreer you want to proceed. Something like „i swear you in and you are it“ does not happen here.

Actually "Polizei" is exclusively used in German speaking countries. Germany, Austria and (partly) Switzerland. In Denmark and Norway it's Politi and in The Netherlands it's Politie. In Sweden and Finland Polis.

8:22 136 ... you look like Doc Brown wondering why the flux capacitor hasn't kicked in at 88mph 😂😂😂

The data suggests that there are less accidents in Germany compared to other countries with similar infrastructure and with general speed limits. In fact most accidents in Germany also happen in areas where there is a speed limit. In some ways the absence of speed limits might improve traffic safety as people have to be much more disciplined while driving in these areas as you have to always maintain your right lane and always have to be aware of your surroundings since at anytime some big BMW might appear in the rear mirror and then pass you with 150mph a few seconds later...

Accidents resulting in death on the Autobahn are 3.8 per 100,000 for comparison, in the USA it is 12.7 ...

As a German I'm for speedlimit but only for foreigners. 😂

The Germans REALLY tkae driving etiquette and safety seriously, hence they don't have speed limits

The polish diver was stopped not because he is polish but because it is common that polish drivers are payed very bad and so the often break traffic laws, drive without enough breaks (too tired), have technical defects in their vehicle. Usually traffic police has a good eye for this.

In Europe, every policeman/woman has to go through a multi year training and many tests before being a part of the executive branch of the state. If you want to become a detective, it is similar to a university degree.

a knife longer than 2inches u get trouble

I'm an American living in Germany since 2012. One thing I have noticed, for me anyways, is that I don't have that constant paranoia of a police officer hiding behind every bridge or tree just waiting to pull me over for any reason whatsoever. Passing an officer on the Autobahn as I'm traveling over a 100mph is an awesome feeling as well.

germany has one of the lowest accident rate in the world despite we have no speed limit.

As someone working in logistics i can tell you that the majority of freight traffic is either german or polish and a lot of other trucks i would guess around 80% are trucks from outside of germany, so them stopping specifiically the polish truck is not intentional and to be even more honest, its not just a stereotype that polish drivers are the ones most often violating some laws.

I have lived in Germany for almost 50 years, and I have never encountered a German police officer who was power tripping. Maybe that's because they have to do almost three years of training.

In Germany cops are called as “Freund und Helfer“ (friend and helper)

Just a little thought experiment: US cops enforce the law. Die deutsche Polizei stellt die Einhaltung der Gesetze sicher. = The German police ensures the laws are upheld. Notice the difference? I haven't found a better description of the difference in mindsets. Edit 1: being Polish isn't the criterion for pulling him out, at least not just due to nationality. Driving from Poland to anywhere not within Eastern Germany takes some time. If I understood them correctly they were patrolling in Hesse(n) which is located right smack-dab in the middle of Germany. It takes at least 6 hours directly from the Polish-German border to reach any spot within Hessen. Truckers have a mandatory rest period every few hours which they have to register in their driver's checkbook. Every. 4.5 hours a trucker HAS to have a rest-stop of 45 minutes, with a total of nine hours regular max per day, or once a week up to 10 hours per day as extended driving times. With the time it usually takes from Poland to the center of Hessen that driver should have taken at least one rest-stop, minimum, if he had started anywhere directly on the border. If he had started deeper in Poland and reached that spot there's a pretty good chance he was already way over his alotted maximum of ten hours driving per day. Meaning at least two rest stops. So being Polish as some kind of racial profiling wasn't the reason; the distance traveled would be the reason. Unfortunately, yes, that makes it a lot easier for foreign drivers to be detected among the sea of German vehicles. However long distance freight in Germany also gets checked regularly, as the license plates for trucks from certain areas also make determining their probably driving distance and times possible. Add any kind of strange behavior like swerving, rough lane behavior, etc into the mix, and then they have every reason to check up on them.

People shall also take in mind that Autobahn is yes currently without speed limit while all "smaller" interstate roads are limited to 100 kmh (63 mph) and in centres of smaller towns and villages are now predominately limited to ridiculous 30 kmh (19 mph) for noise and "pollution" reduction. On Autobahn you have to have good car and not clogged traffic to utilize it no speed limit. Generally there is no need to go beyond 160 kmh (100mph) as it brings marginal time gain with significant risk increase + in EU is more expensive fuel so with each +10-20 kmh above 120 you get additional 1L of fuel expense, so you can question yourself if those 5 min gained really worth those 1.8 euro for 1 L (Cheapest petrol 95 octane at the moment is around 1.8 eur/L --> 7.9 $ a Gallon) .

Its a simple answer as to why the world POLIZEI or related, its because of their languages to which the English language we both speak is rooted from - English is rooted from the Germanic language family. You can't expect them all to have the "Police" as you know it.

I am Afraid Polizei is soundly German. Which is also spoken in Switserland and Austria. But here you. Just a few. French Police German Polizei Danish Politi Finnish Poliisi Polish Policja Italian Polizia Dutch Politie Spanish Policia

"Polizei" is based on the old greek word "politeia" ... a lot of roman/greek based languages using "developed" version of the old greek term ... englisch, German, French, Spanish have the same origin

The word "Polizei" can be traced back to the Greek "pólis" which means city(state) or "politeía" which is citizens rights or state government. This in turn influenced the latin language where we get politia, which is obviously basically the same word. With all the screwing around, colonizing and conquering the greeks and romans did, it should come to no surprise that words stemming from that are used all around europe. IIRC the "Polizei" and "Police/Policia" split stems from the early middle ages. Spainish, French and English are using Police/Policia while Italy and a bunch of "Germanic" languages are using something with a "z". If you want to know why that is, you'd have to ask an actual linguist. Or the internet, lol.

Polis, Gendarme, Carabinieri, Polizei, they are all police

1:44 The transliteration is po- lee- tseye. The origin is from Middle Latin policia, from the Latin politia, from classic Greek politeia citizens right or state. Since Latin was the pan-European language for nigh on 1200 years, the word drifted into every language, and since Europe colonised most of the world, it became ubiquitous.

As to the origin and background of the term “police”: The word is derived from the ancient Greek “polis”. In ancient Greece, this was the designation for the so-called city states -- and those city states were equipped with forces of order (likely as the first police forces that existed in history). From here, this word -- of course in its linguistic variations -- found its way into many languages. BTW, since you mentioned the mission or attitude of the police in Germany and other EU countries, the motto the German police (as an example) is "Dein Freund und Helfer" -- i.e., "Your friend and helper", which is somewhat the counterpart to "To help and protect" in the US. Furthermore, In Germany the police are not permitted to just ask stopped drivers “What are you doing?” unless there is a concrete suspicion of a crime. Otherwise, the driver would rightly ask back “What do you mean, what am I doing? You should know that this is none of your business.” Your final thoughts are quite interesting. Personally, I don't have a "know-it-all answer", but one thing is for sure: Being more chilled in many dangerous situations defintely has to do with the thorough basic three-year education and on-the job training of German police officers. Many thanks for reacting to this! Best wishes from Germany

It is truck scales (weigh stations) not truck stops where truckers in the US and Canada have to pull off the highway to get weighed and inspected. Truck stops are where truckers top to rest / sleep. As for why they pulled over a Polish truck in this clip...experience and gut feeling. Vehicles from Eastern Europe are on average more likely to be in violation of the rules than a truck from, say the Netherlands or Denmark.

Police in Germany ist (most of the times...) at the service of the people.

I usually drive not over 200Kmh but what people dont know ist that you are much more aware of everything going on when you drive fast that when you duddly along not paying attention.

The word “Police” is actually a French word like 30% of all English words But in France they call it Gendarmerie

There are a lot of speed limits. Mostly near city's construction site's etc...

If youre curious about the word Polizei wait until you get that Dollar comes from Taler which was a german and european word for a special silver coin. I think it has to do with the romanic empire. They spreaded their language or language parts all over Europe.

It comes from the Greek word "politeia", which means "state power".

Polizei (Police) comes from the greek language. "Polis" means city or state. It is related to the word "politica" (state affair). "Politeia" means state administration. And because nowadays the duties of the police is still the enforcement of the (laws of the) state, it makes sense to use the "basic form" Polizei, Police, Politie, etc. All goes back to the roots in the greek language...

Polizei is only in german speaking countrys but the term is allways pretty similar because the word police/polizei/politie (dutch)/polis(sweden) etc is from the greek word politeia what sowhat mean like State power.

I love germany. Things work. Everyones on the same page and knows what to do. German people are educated and get things done. They are respectful to the law and so the police dont need to have a heavy handed attitude. They just make sure society runs smoothly according to the law and they help people out. World = take note!

Police in Europe is more about safety. I was driving 25 mph over the limit in the netherlands but keeping my distance etc. I noticed an unmarked car following me. Moved to the right lane and let him overtake me. They just gave me a thumbs up and left me alone. Yes I was driving to fast but apperently they decided I was doing it safely.

I have seen ppl driving 200 mph and well, yes it's leagal. Also there are steches on the Autoban that have speed limmits.

The discussion about speed limits in Germany has changed in recent years. Now it is more about reducing CO2 emissions than the accident rate. Cars in Germany are much safer than they were 20 years ago, but this has also made them much heavier. The engines are very efficient nowadays, but if you reduce fuel consumption by 50%, but the car is twice as heavy as before, it doesn't change much in terms of C02 emissions. And since the efficiency is also greatly reduced at high speeds and thus the C02 emissions increase, this is the main reason for the debate about speed limits on the highways in Germany...

That happens when 1. Every one can buy guns easyer then get a haircut 2. You employ former military guys because they already have gun training 3. You train cops for 19 weeks (German police is trained 2 years including deescalation) When you hire ex military you get people who are trained to shoot at the smallest signs of trouble, and that's a hab it you get never out of them.

Polizei = Germany, Austria Politsei = Estonia Police = English-speaking countries, France, Switzerland Polizia = Italy Policía = Spain Polícia = Portugal, Slovakia Policia = Albanian Politi = Denmark, Norway Politie = Netherlands Policie = Czech Republic Poliisi = Finland Polis = Sweden Poliția = Romania Policija = Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia Policja = Poland Rendőrség = Hungary

Here is the statistic you are interested in. Scroll down, it shows 18 EU counties, the measure is Autobahn deaths per 1000km of Autobahn, year is 2022, Germany is exactly in the middle.

To get a driverlizenz you must go in a driverschool. You learn all the rules to drivin.

As you have asked: 2023, "only" 2839 persons have died on German streets in total. Around 1/3 per km in total are driven in cities (50 km or 30 km speed limit), 1/3 on rural/country road system (regular 100 km or less) and 1/3 on German Autobahn (let us not use the word highway, the US highway is not really comparable to German Autobahn, it is something different. Who calls an Autobahn a "highway" is just wrong). 58% die on country/rural road system, 1635 persons. 32% inside of cities, 902 11% on Autobahnen, 302. I have not found the data for 2023 (but I remember these last data prior COVID), around 100 who die on German Autobahn road system will be truck/lorry drivers, crashing with another truck or with landscape, bridges e.g. regular because violence of driving times, to low gap to the next truck or something else (around 160 to 180 truck drivers die regular in total on German streets per year, more or less no one in cities, around 60 to 80 on rural/country street system). Allowed speed limit for truck drivers is 80 km/h on Autobahnen and during controls, they check all speed datas/driving times of the driver of the last year. Around 60 on Autobahn will be car drivers, killed by truck drivers, because, they were the crash element between two trucks e.g. (so by truck driver fault). Than there are suicides (persons jumping from bridges in front of lorry drivers, suicide by driving with full speed againt a truck or the collumn of a bridge or wrong way driving with intention...e.g.), other accidents, bad weather/icing, fog, alcohol e.g. The unlimited speed on German Autobahn has only a very limited impact on the total number of death on German streets. This is a surprise for everyone but it is so. The data is available and regular published. Too high speed and trees along rural/country roads are by far the main killer on German streets. This is the official page of the German government for 2023, there are links to additional material/tables. This is the German version, 05-Jul-2024 for the year 2023. www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2024/07/PD24_261_46241.html I do not find the data/this news on the English language page: www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Traffic-Accidents/_node.html

In Deutschland gibt es keine Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzungen. Hier kann man sein Auto ausfahren. 270 - 350 km AMC Mercedes, Porsche Carrera, Audi Lamborghini Vollgas. Bei Berlin fuhr ein Bugatti über 400 km.

Police comes from latin 'polītīa' (state, government). Direct descendants: - Italian: polizia, Portuguese, Spanish: polícia. French branch, Middle French: police - English: police; Swedish: polis - Middle Dutch: policie → Dutch: politie - Romanian: poliție. German branch, Middle Low German: politie - Danish/Norwegian: politi - Middle High German: policei → Modern German: Polizei.

Wiki: First attested in English in the early 15th century, originally in a range of senses encompassing '(public) policy; state; public order', the word police comes from Middle French police ('public order, administration, government'), in turn from Latin politia, which is the romanization of the Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeia) 'citizenship, administration, civil polity'. This is derived from πόλις (polis) 'city'." The Germanic term Polizei is directly from the old greek Politeia without a romanisation.