The Kriminalpolizei was the professional detective service of Germany between 1936 and 1945. Known as the Kripo, the Kriminalpolizei were commanded by Artur Nebe until 1944, when Nebe was denounced and presumably executed after the attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944. In the last year of its existence, the Kripo was commanded by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, indirectly through the RSHA.

The Kriminalpolizei typically worked in conjunction with the Ordnungspolizei with administrative needs furnished by the SS-Hauptamt. The Kripo was organized in a tier system, with central offices in all towns and smaller cities. These, in turn, answered to headquarters offices in the larger German cities which answered to the Central Office of the Kriminalpolizei, considered a sub-office of the RSHA.

The Kriminalpolizei was mainly concerned with serious crimes such as rape, murder, and arson. A main area of the group's focus was also on "blackout burglary", considered a serious problem during bombing raids where criminals would raid abandoned homes, shops, and factories for any availalbe valuables.

Kripo members were considered full members of the Allgemeine-SS but could also hold corresponding Orpo rank. Most Kripo detectives referred to themselves by police investigator titles such as Kriminalrat, instead of SS or Orpo rank. The Kripo was also one of the manpower agencies upon which the Einsatzgruppen were formed and several senior Kripo commanders, Artur Nebe among them, were assigned as Einsatzgruppen Commanders.

The novel Fatherland, set in an alternate history where Germany won the Second World War, focuses around a central character (Xavier March) who is a Sturmbannführer in the office of the Kriminalpolizei. Artur Nebe also appears in the novel as an Oberstgruppenführer, still serving as the commander of the Kripo twenty years after the close of World War II.