!!!Polizei

Police, administrative institution for the prevention of and 
protection against danger or infringements of law and order under the 
threat of force or by coercive action. According to their fields of 
responsibility, the Austrian Police force is divided into 
"Sicherheitspolizei" (security police) and "Verwaltungspolizei" 
(administrative police). The security police are responsible for 
protection against and suppression of any danger to life, health, 
public peace, law and order within the state of Austria. The 
administrative police are responsible for the protection of specific 
matters of administrative law and for ensuring compliance with 
specific legal regulations pertaining to specific areas of 
administrative authority. Violations of these regulations result in 
the imposition of administrative fines by the police authority having 
jurisdiction over the activity or subject matter in question, such as 
building, industry and trade, traffic, foodstuffs, aliens, passports, 
associations and assemblies, fire-arms and explosives; other units 
comprise the lost and found office and the supervision of 
entertainments and of closing hours.

\\
The general security police force falls under the responsibility of 
the Federal Government as far as legislation and execution is 
concerned. On the one hand it deals with administrative aspects of 
criminal justice, which are defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure. 
Suspects may be interrogated, witnesses questioned and (provided legal 
conditions are satisfied) arrests, searches and seizures may be 
conducted (judiciary police, criminal investigation department). On 
the other hand the general security police are responsible for the 
security of the state ( State Police) and for the maintenance of 
public peace and law and order.

\\
The general security police has a special organisational structure. At 
the top of the hierarchy is the Central Public Security Board 
(Generaldirektion fuer die oeffentliche Sicherheit), a division of the 
Ministry of the Interior; it comprises the state police, the central 
command unit of the gendarmerie (rural police force) and the Criminal 
Investigation-INTERPOL group (co-ordination of criminal investigation 
activities in Austria, central bureau of  INTERPOL for Austria). Each 
federal province has a Public Security Directorate, headed by a 
security director, in its capital city (in Vienna the police chief is 
at the same time the security director). The lowest instance is the 
district administration authority (Bezirkshauptmannschaften) or 
Federal Police Authorities (Federal Police Directorates in Vienna, 
Schwechat, St. Poelten, Wiener Neustadt, Linz, Steyr, Wels, 
Salzburg, Innsbruck, Eisenstadt, Graz, Leoben, Klagenfurt and 
Villach).

\\
The local security police within the jurisdiction of the provinces are 
organised by the municipalities in their own sphere of action. Their 
responsibilities are, for instance, the maintenance of public 
propriety, protection against noise pollution or the issuance of 
regulations governing the hours during which the doors of apartment 
buildings etc. have to be kept locked.

\\
The organisation of the administrative police is the responsibility of 
the administrative authority having jurisdiction over the specific 
matters in question.

\\
The police authorities exercise their functions through  Law 
Enforcement Officers. Their officers wear uniform and bear arms and 
act as organs and on behalf of the police authorities. In some 
municipalities the local police officers are also responsible for 
executive tasks on behalf of the municipal administration. The Federal 
Security Police (Bundessicherheitswache) is organised in corps 
assigned to a Federal Police Directorate. The corps of criminal 
investigation consist of plain-clothes officers assigned to Federal 
Police Directorates. The remaining security tasks are fulfilled by the 
 Gendarmerie. At the head of the Bundesgendarmerie (federal 
gendarmerie) is the Central Command Unit of the gendarmerie, which 
forms part of the Public Security Board. In the federal provinces the 
provincial gendarmerie command units form part of the Public Security 
Directorates. They are responsible for the district gendarmerie 
headquarters and the local gendarmerie station headquarters 
(Gendarmeriepostenkommando).

\\
History: In the early Middle Ages militias were the chief law 
enforcement bodies, side by side with the police forces maintained by 
local rulers and the cities. Under Maria Theresia a central police 
bureau with commissariats was established in Vienna in 1776. The 
police was reorganised by Count J. A. Pergen under 
Joseph II: The police bureau was changed into a police 
directorate in 1789 to which the local chiefs of police had to report 
(predecessor of a police ministry). In 1791 the independent status of 
the police was again abolished, and in the following years emphasis 
was laid on developing the state police (especially in the Vormaerz 
period). After the revolution of 1848 the system of security was 
entrusted to the municipalities. In 1849 the gendarmerie was 
established, in 1850 the "basic principles of the organisation of 
the local rulers' police authorities" were announced, in 1851, 
after the separation of the judicial branch and the administration, 
the power to sentence offenders was withdrawn from the police and 
conferred upon the state courts. In 1852 the Ministry of the Interior 
was transformed into the "Supreme Police Authority", which became a 
police ministry in 1859 (and abolished in 1867). In 1870 police 
matters were definitively conferred on the Ministry of the Interior. 
The INTERPOLl was established in 1923, with the valuable co-operation 
of the Chief of Police of Vienna, J.  Schober and had its first 
headquarters in Vienna. - Since 1993 the organisation and 
responsibilities of the security and of the executive authorities have 
been governed by the Security Police Act.

!Literature
K. Springer, Die oesterreichische Polizei, 1960; W. Blum, 
Die Sicherheitspolizei und ihre Handlungsformen, 1987; A. Hauer and R. 
Keplinger, Handbuch zum Sicherheitspolizeigesetz, 1993; A. Dearing, 
Sicherheitspolizeigesetz (SPG), 1999.


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