I was playing a game where the USA gets invaded by Russia (World in Conflict, a bit silly but I like it) and in one of the opening cutscenes you can see a police officer with his revolver drawn, helping Army/national guard troops hold of the russians.
That got me thinking about how the Police of countries that had been invaded actually responded. Did some help in the countries defence (through either combat or support roles)? Did others continue on like usual? During occupation did any assist any local resistance/partisans? Just stayed neutral and focused on enforcing normal day to day law? Or was it more common to collaborate with the occupiers (be it the Axis, Soviets or Allies)?
I could go on but yeah any insight would be awesome
Talking for France here: A large part of the police remained at their post first because there was an armistice (they did not fight along the soldiers during the war as policemen). Now, you have to understand that at this time noone had heard of the General De Gaulle. The French Marshal Petain who was famous in France for being the winner of Verdun (the French pendant of the battle of the Somme for the brits) was really liked by the people and most French trusted him. With the concessions made one by one to Nazi Germany, people tend to grow apart from each others based on their values. Do I flee? Do I stay and resist? Do I collaborate? Do I stay and try to live my life and not die? These choices were made on an individual basis but never on an institutional basis as you could not trust anyone (people were denouncing each other).