Arrests without Warrant or Judicial Review: Preventive Police
Action in Nazi Germany, as of February 28, 1933 Translated from
Werner Best, Der Deutsche Polizei (Darmstadt: L.C. Wittich
Verlag, 1940), pp. 31-33. Guidelines for Preventive Police
Action against Crime: In the internal distribution of
responsibilities of the police, prevention of “political crimes”
is assigned to the Secret State Police [Gestapo]. In other cases
the criminal police is responsible for the prevention of crime.
The criminal police operates according to guidelines in the
prevention of crime according to the following principles: The
tools used in the prevention of crime are systematic police
surveillance and police preventive arrest. Systematic police
surveillance can be used against those professional criminals
who live or have lived, entirely or in part, from the proceeds
of their criminal acts and who have been convicted in court and
sentenced at least three times to prison, or to jail terms of at
least three months, for crimes fro