Editing Schutzpolizei (section)

== History ==

[[Jan Paap]] created the Schutzpolizei when the [[Ordnungspolizei]] was formed on 15 April 1970. Existing Argentine police stations remained open, but officers assigned to urban policing were transferred into the new branch. Rural police entered the [[Gendarmerie]].<ref name="ordnungspolizei-history"/> Command assignments changed before all transferred officers had received Ordnungspolizei uniforms.<ref name="ordnungspolizei-personnel"/> [[Ícaro Barragán]], an [[Oberkommando der Tanoa Einsatzgruppen|Oberkommando]] police-planning officer who had helped design the reorganization, became the first Generalinspekteur der Schutzpolizei.

In 1971, [[Rodolfo Barrenechea]] added the [[Gemeinden der Schutzpolizei]] for municipalities that did not require a larger city command. After [[Fiji]] was annexed in 1975, officers working at urban police stations were transferred into the Schutzpolizei. Most stayed at the stations where they had already worked.<ref name="ordnungspolizei-history"/> Tanoa later expanded the police site at Samabula into the main Ordnungspolizei complex in Fiji. The Fiji territorial command and the Suva Schutzpolizei command operated from the site.

The Schutzpolizei took part in the first response to the [[Suva Crisis]] on 31 December 1979. At 3:27{{nbsp}}p.m., [[Totogo Central Police Station]] sent 24 officers toward [[Korovou Prison]], seven minutes after the disturbance began. About 45 armed resistance supporters were outside the prison when the detachment arrived. The officers opened fire immediately and later lost their position during fighting on Foster Road. The Samabula command then sent another 80 Schutzpolizei officers.

On 16 March 2001, the [[Oberkommando der Tanoa Einsatzgruppen|Oberkommando]] leadership removed Barragán after a six-week internal investigation into his protection of [[Nexum Tanoa Biotechnik]], the principal beneficiary of the arrangement. The inquiry also covered his dealings with [[Asterión Werke AG]] and [[Helikon Agraria]]. [[Ottavio Brandt]], the Buenos Aires-born commander of an internal-investigations office within the Argentine Schutzpolizei, personally directed the investigation. His team connected suppressed complaints with restrictions on searches and traced unexplained assets to Barragán. Barragán had received secret payments and property from the companies, including financial assets concealed from state accounts. The investigation led directly to Brandt becoming acting Generalinspekteur that day. He received the permanent appointment on 2 April 2001 and remained in office until the Schutzpolizei ended on 30 November 2024, making him its final permanent Generalinspekteur.

On 9 April 2001, one week after his permanent appointment, Brandt established the [[Hauptinspektionsamt der Schutzpolizei]] as his first major reform. The new inspectorate reported directly to the Generalinspekteur and could investigate every territorial Schutzpolizei command. It replaced the territorial internal-investigations offices and sent teams from Georgetown to examine individual cases. Brandt's written authorization allowed a team to search Schutzpolizei premises without the approval of the territorial command under investigation. The team could also seize records and suspend officers while the case remained open. The inspectorate submitted its findings to Brandt, who decided how the officers were disciplined and whether to transfer criminal evidence to the [[Tanoanischssicherheitshauptamt|TSHA]].

The inspectorate's first major investigation was '''Fall Nachtglas''' in 2001. It concerned officers of the Buenos Aires Schutzpolizei who destroyed records tied to Barragán's protection arrangement. Fourteen officers were implicated. Nine were dismissed for lesser participation. The five principal offenders were transferred to the TSHA and executed after conviction. Investigators reconstructed most of the destroyed records from duplicate archives.

During the [[Battle of Georgetown]], fought from 24 to 30 November 2024, the Hauptinspektionsamt attempted to evacuate senior staff and selected files toward Buenos Aires. Personnel remaining at its headquarters tried to destroy as many other files as possible. The [[Resistance against the Tanoa Einsatzgruppen|Tanoa Resistance]] wiped out the office during its prolonged ground assault, and many people died at the site.

Central control over the Schutzpolizei broke down after the battle began on 24 November. City units continued operating where officers remained at their stations, but Georgetown no longer controlled every territorial command.<ref name="ordnungspolizei-history"/> Brandt remained at the central Schutzpolizei headquarters and directed the commands that still answered to Georgetown. The remaining central command surrendered on 30 November, after which Brandt was captured. The Schutzpolizei ceased to exist that day when the Tanoa Einsatzgruppen stopped functioning as an organized government.<ref name="ordnungspolizei-history"/>