Federal Investigation Bureau

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Agency Overview
Federal Investigation Bureau Bundeskriminalamt
Abbreviation	.BK
Formed	2002
Legal personality	Governmental agency
Jurisdictional Structure
Federal agency (Operations jurisdiction)	Austria
Legal jurisdiction	As per operations jurisdiction.
Constituting instrument	Federal Investigation Bureau Law (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz)^[1]
General nature	Civilian agency Federal law enforcement

Operational Structure
Headquarters	Josef-Holaubek-Platz, Alsergrund, Vienna
Parent agency	Generaldirektion für die öffentliche Sicherheit (General Directorate of Public Security)
Website
http://www.bundeskriminalamt.at/ (Austrian)

The Federal Investigation Bureau Bundeskriminalamt (.BK) (translated "Federal Criminal Office") was created in Austria as a federal police force to effectively combat crime nationwide and to perform international police cooperation functions. This happened in 2002 with a special law called the Federal Investigation Bureau Law (Bundeskriminalamtgesetz) ^[1]. The .BK is also sometimes referred to as the Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service. It should not be confused with the German Federal Investigation Bureau which is also called Bundeskriminalamt but abbreviated BKA.

1 Missions
2 Structure
3 Facts
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] 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).

[edit] Structure

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

[edit] Facts

The abbreviation ".BK" was chosen so as not to be confused with the Austrian Federal Chancellor's Office (Bundeskanzleramt) and the German Federal Investigation Bureau (also called Bundeskriminalamt) which are both abbreviated "BKA". The full stop before the BK is part of the corporate design of the Interior Ministry . The .BK's HQ is in the Alsergrund district of Vienna on Josef-Holaubek-Platz which is named after a famous former police general.