Law enforcement in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

is the responsibility of the Directorate General for Public Security, a subdivision of the Federal Ministry of the Interior located at Herrengasse 7 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Over 20,000 police officers are on duty in the Federal Police at more than 1,000 police stations. On lakes and rivers the federal police has over 70 boats and other craft to act as the

water police Water police, also called harbor patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables, river police, or maritime law enforcement or coastal police are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organizat ...

Military_Police_Austria_Patrol_Vehicle_25102019

Law enforcement agencies

Federal

Ministry of Defence

Military Police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

(german: Militärpolizei): the

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

of the

Austrian Armed Forces The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria. The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of nati ...

Ministry of Finance

* Financial Police (german: Finanzpolizei): the uniformed law enforcement arm of the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

Customs Service Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

(german: Operative Zollaufsicht) Sonderwagen_4_Police_Austria25102019a

Ministry of the Interior

The

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

is responsible for: * Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (german: Bundesamt zur Korruptionsprävention und Korruptionsbekämpfung) *

Directorate General for the Public Security The Directorate General for Public Security (''Generaldirektion für die öffentliche Sicherheit'', "GDföS") is the governing body of general law enforcement in Austria and a division of the Ministry of the Interior. It oversees the Federal Polic ...

(german: Generaldirektion für öffentliche Sicherheit (GDföS)) ** Criminal Police Office (german: Bundeskriminalamt (BK)) **

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

(german: Bundespolizei): divided into 83

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

police commands and 27

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

police commands ** Einsatzkommando Cobra (EKO Cobra): federal

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

and special forces unit **

Air Police The United States Air Force Security Forces (SF) are the ground combat force and military police service of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. USAF Security Forces (SF) were formerly known as Military Police (MP), Air Police (AP), and Sec ...

(german: Flugpolizei): responsible for law enforcement in the air, including the provision of

police helicopter Police aviation is the use of aircraft in police operations. Police services commonly use aircraft for traffic control, ground support, search and rescue, high-speed car pursuits, observation, air patrol and control of large-scale public events ...

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

* Judicial Guard (german: Justizwache): responsible for running

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

s and providing security at

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...

facilities

State

In general, the nine

States of Austria Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states (German: ''Länder''). Since ''Land'' is also the German word for "country", the term ''Bundesländer'' (literally ''federal states'') is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constituti ...

do not operate state law enforcement agencies, except in their specific areas of competence, namely

nature conservation Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values unde ...

and wildlife protection. *

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

** Tyrolean Mountain Guards (german: Tiroler Bergwacht) enforce conservation and wildlife protection laws in the state of

Municipalities

Some Austrian

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

operate a form of municipal law enforcement agency. In some municipalities, this is known as the City Police (german: Stadtpolizei), or sometimes Community Police (german: Gemeindepolizei) or Community Security Guard (german: Gemeindesicherheitswache). In others, responsibility for policing lies with the federal government and municipalities cannot call these agencies "police", instead naming them "order offices" (german: Ordnungsamt, Ordnungswache), similar in function to a

bylaw enforcement officer A bylaw enforcement officer (also called municipal law enforcement or municipal enforcement) is an employee of a municipality, county or regional district, charged with the enforcement of local ordinance—bylaws, laws, codes, or regulations ena ...

or code enforcement. In some cases, these organisations are established as private corporations, owned by the municipality, such as the Security Service (german: Ordnungsdienst) of

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

Requirements for police officers

Police officers in Austria must meet certain requirements. These requirements include being at least 18 years of age, Austrian citizenship, an ability to act (not burdened by physical disability), impeccable reputation, Class B driver's licence, if conscripted to the armed forces, to have completed that conscription, and a swimming badge to prove swimming ability.

References

External links

Bundeskriminalamt

Polizei
{{Austria-stub