Lithuanian Criminal Police nowadays

We generally hear about the criminal police when a brutal crime shakes the public or when large-scale perpetrators are arrested. About two thousand investigators in the country’s local police units do, as their daily routine, loads of invisible work putting efforts to prevent planned crime, and fight crime which is of crucial importance to the state and greatly valued by the public.

The Lithuanian criminal police system consists of the following:

• Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau – central criminal police agency which develops crime-reduction strategy, coordinates and controls activities of the country’s county criminal police headquarters, prevents and investigates serious and very serious criminal offences, crimes of international and interregional character, ones committed by high-level organised crime groups and other criminal offences which cause serious damage to the state and individuals;
• Lithuanian Police Forensic Science Centre – carries out laboratory-based examinations of objects seized at crime scenes, investigates scenes of serious and very serious crimes and coordinates such investigations at the national level, stores and administers various forensic databases requisite for disclosing investigations and for conducting forensic analyses and examinations.
• Criminal police units of county police headquarters - ensure prevention, disclosure and investigation of criminal offences throughout the territory of a county.

Lithuanian criminal police is one of the most modern and state-of-the-art branch of the Lithuanian police whose traditions have been created and fostered by a series of preceding generations of criminal officers. Positive feedback and recognition of foreign counterparts, joint operations and joint investigation teams as well as disclosure of resonant crimes all confirm high levels of professional competence of Lithuanian criminal police.

Both central and county criminal police forces go hand in hand since only focused and universal police with their joint efforts may overcome the challenges posed by modern crime.

Each year (starting with 1993), with the approach of the Criminal Police Day on 27 October, results of the work of criminal police are summed up and the best criminal investigator, symbolically called “Detective of the Year”, is selected who is awarded the legendary Sherlock Holmes Pipe.