In Lithuania the first police offices appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. At that time Lithuania became a part of the empire of the tsar Russia after the third division of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania. On 25 June, 1811 a law “About the Establishment of Ministries” was passed by tsar Alexander I. According to it, 12 ministries were established in the empire, and the Ministry of Interior was among them. The first attempts to establish the Lithuanian police were made during World War I. In 1915 a military command of the tsar Russia gave a permission to organize a local police in Lithuania. The local police was committed to deal with the evacuation of residents’ possessions to Russia, to issue different certificates and attestations for residents, to protect the property of cities and human lives. It was also responsible for fighting against pillage and larceny and for the maintenance of public order. However, on 18 September, 1918 a German army occupied Vilnius and after some time - all territory of Lithuania. Consequently, the activity of local police was suppressed.
In the period of 16 January, 1918 and the beginning of November, 1918 Lithuania existed without its own government and police.
No sooner was Lithuania allowed to establish its own government then Germany, which was ruled by a Kaiser, lost World War I. On 11 November, 1918 the first meeting of the Lithuania government was arranged that was protected by the Lithuanian police. Thereby, the Lithuania police was created in all the territory of the country during November and December in 1918. In Lithuania during the first years of independence the police was called militia and only on 1 January, 1924 it was officially renamed as police. In 1924, when different types of police were created, a system of structural subdivision was formed, which was governed by a minister of Interior. The public police was dependent on the Department of Citizen Protection (beginning with the year 1935 – on the Police Department). The public police was governed by 19 Heads of cities and regions and by 21 police leader. At that time the territory of Lithuania was divided into 94 precincts of the public police, which had 206 offices. In 1932 there were 96 police precincts. Each precinct was responsible for approximately 21 thousand residents.
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