형사사법절차의 개선과 함께 적법절차준수 및 인권보호에 대한 시민들의 기대수준이 증가하고 있다. 이를 효과적으로 충족하기 위해서는 경찰직무의 전문성이 확보되어야 한다. 전문성을 담보할 수 있는 적절한 인사행정 및 신규입직 교육과정의 내실화(실무 및 이론교육 강화 및 교육기간 확대)가 이루어져야 한다. 독일은 G7 국가들 가운데, 신규입직 경찰교육에 가장 많이 투자하고 있다. 독일 국민들은 경찰에 대해 높은 신뢰를 갖고 있다. 경찰은 연방 및 16개 州경찰로 분권화된 체제이다. 독일 경찰의 입직체계는 중급직(고졸)/상급직(대졸)/고급직(대학원)으로 나뉘어져 있다. 경찰입직 후 승진은 대체로 교육과정 수료와 연계되어 있다. 그래서 순경급 입직자는 대체로 연방/주 경찰학교에서 24-30개월, 경위급은 경찰대학에서 36-45개월 교육과정(내부승진자+인문계 고졸자)을 그리고 경정급은 (연방)경찰대학원에서 2년제 석사과정 졸업을 기본요건으로 하고 있다. 경찰교육의 주요 내용은 범죄예방(순찰)분야, 교통통제/예방/사고처리 및 범죄통제/수사분야를 중심으로 다양한 법률학(형법/형사소송법/경찰법/행정법/헌법), 사회과학(사회학/범죄학/심리학/수사학) 및 경찰실무(경비/작전/응급조치/운전/통신/사격)분야로 이뤄져 있다. 최근 연방수사경찰(BKA)과 노르트라인-베스트팔렌州를 비롯한 6개주는 경찰대학과정을 통해서 신규입직 경찰관을 전원 경위급(Kommissar)으로만 채용하고 있다. 이를 통하여 전문성을 강화하고, 높은 경위-경감급 경찰관 비율을 유지하고 있다. 이러한 측면에서 독일 경찰의 신규입직 교육제도는 시사점을 제공하고 있다.
Currently, the Korean people strongly request fundamental right protection and due process of law in the criminal justice system. To meet these demands, Korean police shall be more professionalized in their work, especially in the criminal investigation process and crime prevention. Police work can be effectively accomplished through the proper personnel management, improvement of working condition, and highly specialized entry level training program. The German police usually puts a great deal of resources in the entry level training course than any other developed countries. Through these police job expertness, specialization and efforts, the German police could have received much more trust from its citizen than other public entities under a recent public survey. The German police system is federalized and thus each state has an independent police organization and training program. Each state’s police personnel management policy, including recruitment, promotion and salary shall be decided by the state government’s financial situation and criminal policy issues. The German police recruitment policy shall be usually determined by the applicants’ educational backgrounds, for example, whether they have high school diploma, university/college bachelor degrees, or master degrees or not. The entry level training program is strongly connected with the applicants’ academic career. According to the German police training program, the field officer candidate who shall be employed as a constable or patrolman(Polizeimeister) must complete 30-month training course at the state or federal police academy. Higher officer candidate, as a lieutenant or inspector level(Polizeikommissar) shall finish 36-month or 45-month bachelor degree course in the state or federal police university’s campus and senior officer candidate, as a superintendent level(Polizeirat) shall mandatorily complete 2-year master degree course at the German police graduate school. Generally, the main topic of entry level training course provided at the police academy consists of 3 police basic field work areas, for example, crime prevention skills and tactics, traffic control and accidents prevention, and criminal investigation skills and techniques. For the purpose of mastery of these basic skills in police field work, the candidates shall also learn and master more particular and various subjects, including legal studies(criminal law, constitutional law, and administrative law), social science courses(psychology, sociology, and criminalistics) and police practices (self-defense, operation, arrest skill, shooting, first aid, and driving skill). Recently, several states including North Rhine-Westphalia have newly adopted police recruitment policies different from others. These states do not hire constable or patrolman level officers any more. Instead, most of these states’ police officers shall be employed only as lieutenant or inspector level officers through the 36-month or 45-month police university course. It is regarded as a very special measure in police training and personnel management policy. German police experience will be useful for us to deal with similar issues in the future.