Police license plates have existed in their current form since 2007, when the allocation and appearance of authority license plates was subject to a new regulation. In the course of this reform, various federal states developed their own schemes, according to which police vehicles have been fitted with license plates ever since. Although police license plates are part of the vehicle, they do not fall under the area of vehicle technology, as they are generally conventional license plates without any special modifications.
Only Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg, the three city states among the federal states, remained with the old allocation pattern, in which the state abbreviation (B for Berlin, HB for Bremen and HH for Hamburg) was followed by a three- or four-digit number series after the initial digit 3 or 7. This results in the following combination for a police license plate in Berlin, for example: B 7xxx.
The remaining federal states each use their own regulations for their police license plates. The most widespread system throughout Germany is used by the five federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. All these states use their respective state abbreviations followed by the number sequence 4-xxxx. The police in North Rhine-Westphalia also use the combinations NRW 5-xxx and NRW 6-xxx for motorcycles and NRW 5-xxxx and NRW 6-xxxx for cars. This standardized system allows the registration of company cars at a central registration office within the federal state and the subsequent simple exchange of these company cars without re-registration. This approach also simplifies vehicle technology with regard to the maintenance and servicing of the police fleet.
In other federal states, different allocation patterns are used, some of which are adapted to normal police license plates. The police in Lower Saxony, for example, use conventional license plates, which merely indicate whether the vehicle comes from the fleet of a police inspection (PI) or police directorate (PD). In Bavaria, the various police license plates indicate the location of the respective police station, which makes it easier to assign them directly to specific regions.
Hesse, Saxony and Thuringia also use conventional license plates as police license plates, which are issued for the respective state capital and contain special letter combinations. In Saxony, for example, all police license plates follow the code DD Q xxxx, where "DD" refers to Dresden. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein use the respective state abbreviation and a five-digit number combination for their police license plates. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, this always begins with a 3.
The Federal Police use the combination BP xx-xxx, whereby the two-digit number combination after the "BP" defines the vehicle type in more detail. Different types of vehicles, in particular special vehicles such as emergency vehicles or vans, can already be identified using these license plates. This makes it easier to manage and coordinate the different vehicles within the Federal Police. Vehicle technology is also an important factor here, especially when it comes to the maintenance and equipment of special vehicles.
Closely related in concept to the police license plates are the Y license plates of the German Armed Forces and the X license plates of NATO. These two license plate types are also subject to special regulations that distinguish them from conventional license plates for civilian vehicles.
Police with license plates on the roof
On police vehicles, the license plate or a shortened form of it is also affixed to the roof or hood in some federal states. For this purpose, the identification of the license plate is greatly enlarged and applied in a color that stands out from the background. Alternatively, the radio call sign of the respective vehicle or an internal coding is used.
Police vehicles fitted with license plates or other individual features can be recognized and identified much more easily by air units such as helicopters. This facilitates communication with the vehicle in question, particularly in emergency situations, and ensures faster coordination between the various emergency services. Even if this identification has no direct influence on the vehicle technology, it contributes significantly to the efficiency of operations.
