|
Austria Police
The earliest urban police force was Vienna's City Guard of
1569, consisting of 150 men. By the beginning of the Thirty
Years' War (1618-48), the City Guard consisted of 1,000 men
organized as a regiment, individual companies of which took part
in military campaigns. The soldiers of the guard were subject to
the authority of the Imperial War Council, and the city was
required to pay for their services. In 1646 the city set up its
own Public Order Watch; serious frictions between the two bodies
resulted in their replacement by a new service under a
commissioner of police in 1776. Its personnel were still made up
of soldiers, either volunteers or assigned, but they failed to
meet the city's needs because of a lack of training and
continuity of service. Police functions were organized in a
similar form in other large cities of the empire. It was not
until a series of reforms between 1850 and 1869 that military
influence over the police force was finally ended with the
introduction of an independent command structure, a permanent
corps of police professionals, training of officers in police
skills, and distinctive uniforms and symbols of rank.
The Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie in German) was created by Emperor
Franz Joseph I in 1850 after the disorder and looting that
accompanied the uprising of 1848. Initially composed of eighteen
regiments and part of the army, its operational command was
transferred to the Ministry for Interior in 1860 and wholly
severed from the armed forces in 1867. Nevertheless, training,
uniforms, ranks, and even pay remained patterned after the army.
A special Alpine branch was formed in 1906, mainly to protect the
part of Tirol that bordered Italy. Alpine rescue operations and
border patrols have remained an important Gendarmerie function.
As of 1993, the more important law enforcement and security
agencies were organized under the General Directorate for Public
Security of the federal Ministry for Interior. The directorate is
divided into five units: the Federal Police; the Gendarmerie
central command; the State Police (secret service); the Criminal
Investigation Service; and the Administrative Police. Security
directorates in each of the nine provinces are also under
supervision of the General Directorate for Public Security. Each
of these is organized into a headquarters division, a state
police division, a criminal investigation division, and an
administrative police division.
Contingents of the Federal Police (Bundespolizei) are
stationed in Vienna and thirteen of the larger cities. As of
1990, approximately one-third of the population of Austria lived
in areas receiving Federal Police protection. The Gendarmerie
accounts for nearly all of the remaining areas. A few small
Austrian localities still have their own police forces separate
from the Federal Police or the Gendarmerie. The Federal Police
are responsible for maintaining peace, order, and security;
controlling weapons and explosives; protecting constitutional
rights of free expression and assembly; controlling traffic;
enforcing environmental and commercial regulations; enforcing
building safety and fire prevention rules; policing public
events; and preventing crime. A mobile commando group is
organized in each city directorate, in addition to a four-platoon
"alarm group" in Vienna and a special force to maintain security
at the international airport. In early 1992, it was announced
that 150 officials would be assigned to special units reporting
directly to the Ministry for Interior to fight organized crime.
As of 1990, the Federal Police had a personnel complement of
10,000 in the regular uniformed service (Sicherheitswache--
Security Watch) and 2,400 plainclothes police in the Criminal
Investigation Service. Federal Police contingents are armed with
Glock 17 9mm pistol and truncheons. These can be supplemented
with the standard army weapon, the Steyr 5.56mm automatic rifle,
as well as various kinds of riot-control equipment. A separate
women's police corps serves in the cities, principally to oversee
school crossings and to assist with traffic control. As of 1990,
about twenty-four women served in the Gendarmerie and sixty-six
in the Federal Police, mostly to deal with cases involving women,
youth, and children.
The secret service branch of the Federal Police, the State
Police (Staatspolizei; commonly known as Stapo) specializes in
counterterrorism and counterintelligence. It also pursues rightwing extremism, drug trafficking, illicit arms dealing, and
illegal technology transfers. It performs security investigations
for other government agencies and is responsible for measures to
protect national leaders and prominent visiting officials.
Members of the State Police are chosen from volunteers who have
served for at least three years in one of the other security
agencies.
Numbering 11,600 in 1990, the Gendarmerie has
responsibilities similar to the Federal Police but operates in
rural areas and in towns without a contingent of Federal Police
or local police. There is one member of the Gendarmerie for each
397 inhabitants in the areas subject to its jurisdiction; there
is one member of the Federal Police for each 316 residents in the
cities it patrols.
The Gendarmerie is organized into eight provincial commands
(every province, except Vienna), ninety district commands, and
1,077 posts. A post can have from as few as three to as many as
thirty gendarmes; most have fewer than ten. The provincial
headquarters is composed of a staff department, criminal
investigation department, training department, and area
departments comprising two or three district commands. Basic
Gendarmerie training is the responsibility of the individual
provincial commands, each of which has a school for new recruits.
Leadership and specialized courses are given at the central
Gendarmerie school in Mödling near Vienna. The basic course for
NCOs is one year; that for Gendarmerie officers lasts two years.
The Gendarmerie has its own commando unit, nicknamed
Kobra, as do the separate provincial commands employing
gendarmes with previous experience in Kobra. Alpine posts and
high Alpine posts are served by 750 Gendarmerie Alpinists and
guides. In 1988 more than 1,300 rescue missions were conducted,
many with the aid of Agusta-Bell helicopters in the Gendarmerie
inventory. Members of the Gendarmerie are armed with 9mm
Browning-type semiautomatic pistols. They also have available
American M-1 carbines and Uzi machine pistols.
The Administrative Police, in addition to maintaining the
bulk of routine police records and statistics, work on importexport violations, illegal shipments of such items as firearms
and pornographic materials, and alien and refugee affairs.
Customs officials are ordinarily in uniform; other Administrative
Police dress according to the needs of their assignments.
The late 1980s witnessed a growing incidence of complaints
alleging police misconduct and unnecessary use of force. The
minister for interior reported that there had been 2,622
allegations of ill-treatment by the police between 1984 and 1989,
of which 1,142 resulted in criminal complaints leading to thirtythree convictions against police officers. In addition, 120
disciplinary investigations were carried out, and disciplinary
measures were taken against twenty-six police officers. However,
victims of police misbehavior were liable to be deterred from
pressing their complaints because of the risk of being charged
with slander by the accused officers. A new police law that went
into effect in May 1993 stipulates more clearly the limitations
on police conduct and imposes restrictions on holding persons on
charges of aggressive behavior without an appearance before a
magistrate. In addition, leaflets are to be given to detained or
arrested persons setting out their rights, including the right to
call a lawyer and to have their own doctors if medical
examinations are required.
In 1990 it was disclosed that the State Police had
extensively monitored the activities of private citizens without
sufficient justification. Security checks had been carried out
for private companies on request. Of some 11,000 citizens who
inquired whether they had been monitored, some 20 percent were
found to have State Police files. These actions appeared to be in
violation of laws protecting personal data collected by the
government, public institutions, and private entities, as well as
constitutional protection of the secrecy of the mail and
telephone. These revelations gave rise to a restructuring of the
State Police, including the reduction of its staff from 800 to
440. The new police law that came into effect in 1993 also
introduces parliamentary control over the State Police and the
military secret police, with oversight to be exercised by
separate parliamentary subcommittees.
Data as of December 1993
|
