Criminal Police Office (Austria)

The Criminal Police Office (German: Bundeskriminalamt), abbreviated .BK, is the federal police force in the Republic of Austria. Its role is to combat crime nationwide and serve as a center for cooperation with international police functions. Created in 2002 under a special law called the Federal Investigation Bureau Law (German: Bundeskriminalamtgesetz),[2] the .BK is also sometimes referred to as the Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service. It should not be confused with the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany which is also called the Bundeskriminalamt but abbreviated BKA.

Door plate of the Bundeskriminalamt
Criminal Police Office
Bundeskriminalamt
Abbreviation.BK
Agency overview
Formed2002
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency
(Operations jurisdiction)		Austria
Operations jurisdictionAustria
Legal jurisdictionAs per operations jurisdiction
Constituting instrument
  • Federal Criminal Police Office Law (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz)[1]
General nature
Operational structure
HeadquartersJosef-Holaubek-Platz, Alsergrund, Vienna
Parent agencyGeneraldirektion für die öffentliche Sicherheit (Directorate General for Public Security)
Website
www.bundeskriminalamt.at (Austrian)
Headquarter of the Bundeskriminalamt in Vienna

Missions

The main missions of the .BK are international cooperation, investigations, crime prevention and collating crime statistics. It is Austria's national central bureau for the European Police Office (Europol), Schengen Information System and International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

Structure

The .BK is subordinate to the Generaldirektion für die öffentliche Sicherheit ("GDföS", "Directorate General for Public Security") in the Federal Ministry of the Interior in Vienna. It is therefore not directly linked with the Federal Police, which is a separate organisation within the Directorate General for Public Security. This new organisation was conceived as a better solution to combatting supraregional and serious crime due to its structure, specially trained personnel and equipment.

Facts

The abbreviation ".BK" was chosen so as not to be confused with the Austrian Federal Chancellor's Office (Bundeskanzleramt) which is abbreviated "BKA". The full stop before the BK is part of the corporate design of the Interior Ministry. The .BK's headquarters is in the Alsergrund district of Vienna on Josef-Holaubek-Platz which is named after a former superintendent of the Viennese police.

References
  1. Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz), published 2002
  2. Federal Investigation Bureau Law (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz), published 2002


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