Criminal Investigation Department

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of both are entitled to the rank prefix "Detective"). The name derives from the CID of the Metropolitan Police, formed on 8 April 1878 by C. E. Howard Vincent as a re-formation of its Detective Branch. British colonial police forces all over the world adopted the terminology developed in the UK in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and later the police forces of those countries often retained it after independence. English-language media often use "CID" as a translation to refer to comparable organisations in other countries. The Criminal Investigation Department is under the Afghan National Police. Criminal Investigation Department (Bangladesh) Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire The Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire (DCPJ) is the national authority of the criminal division of the French National Police. Its function is to lead and co-ordinate the action of the law enforcement forces against crime. Kriminalpolizei Kriminalpolizei is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. The Hong Kong Police Force's CID is a sub-branch unit within the Criminal Intelligence Bureau under the crime wing of the B department (crime and security). Criminal Investigation Department (India) Many state police forces in India possess a CID (sometimes known as the investigation branch) as a specialised wing. Personnel attached to this wing work in plain clothes, or mufti. A CID may contain sub-branches, for instance the CID in Uttar Pradesh includes the state crime investigation bureau, finger print bureau and scientific section. Like their counterparts in the law and order police, the crime branch has its own ranks up to the level of additional director general of police or special commissioner of police.