The 2020 TV series “The Defeated” is about an NYPD cop sent to postwar Berlin to train the new German police. Was there any such law enforcement advising effort in either Germany or Japan?

by Tough_Guys_Wear_Pink
Skolloc753

Yes ... however without female police precinct officers. That would still take some decades. ;-)

After the defeat and the end of WW2 Germany and Berlin was divided into the corresponding occupation zones. Pretty much their first actions was to reform the German police as it is a central instrument for social control and stability.

All sides used their own methods (British style was very decentralized, French style was very centralized for example) for De-Nazification, replacement, training rules etc, at least in theory and usually more on the higher level, not on a precinct level.

In practice due to political needs, the De-Nazification was done very superficially, and the "new" guard of police officers was often the same as the one during the Third Reich, with some new faces here and there, wrapped in nice democratic rules this time. At the end of the 40s more and more of these responsibilities was given to the German federal and state governments. Most of them based their version of the local, state and federal police on the old Weimar Republic and the Prussian police philosophy.

You can find more links and information on the official history page of the German Police and the general overview of the police history of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.

I cannot comment on Japan.

SYL