National Police (Liechtenstein)
| National Police of the Principality of Liechtenstein | |
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| founding | 1933 |
| Police chief | Jules S. High |
| Number of employees | 120 |
| Number of riot police | 32 (2013) |
| Memberships | Interpol , Europol , Schengen |
| Website | www.landespolizei.li |
The National Police is the only police authority in the Principality of Liechtenstein . According to the Police Act, it is responsible for maintaining order and security, the prosecution of criminal offenses, state security and international police cooperation. She is also responsible for running the only prison in the principality.
organization
The National Police has been under the direction of Police Chief Jules S. Hoch since July 2, 2013 and is subordinate to the Ministry of Interior of the Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein . It is divided into the police command with various staff units, the two operational departments of the security and traffic police as well as the criminal police and the command services department.
Of the almost 130 employees, two thirds have police status and one third are civilian employees. In addition, the state police maintain a unit of part-time police officers, the riot police, who are used to support shift work and to deal with special security police situations.
Security and traffic police
The security and traffic police are the largest department of the state police. The uniformed police officers are divided into four commissariats and are responsible for maintaining order and security. They represent the state police in public in their patrol vehicles and take the first on-site measures for all police-relevant incidents such as domestic violence , break-ins and theft , property damage and traffic accidents . Ensuring public safety at large-scale events such as football matches is just as much a part of their job as reducing accidents through regular controls and traffic prevention campaigns.
Riot police
Since 1937, the state police have maintained a unit of part-time police officers to support the uniformed police. The riot police are affiliated with the security and traffic police and support the state police primarily in security police matters, be it to reinforce the police patrols or in the case of operations in the security service.
The 40 or so riot police are working Liechtenstein citizens who are recruited by the state police and trained in security police. You will be put into service by the state police if necessary and paid on an hourly basis.
Criminal police
The criminal police is divided into five commissioners and investigates either on its own initiative or on behalf of the public prosecutor's office and court. Your investigative powers range from sexual and narcotic offenses to economic and property offenses to capital offenses .
The criminal investigation department also has its own forensic technology , which is responsible for forensic securing of evidence at crime scenes and locations as well as identification tasks. The police state security also falls under the jurisdiction of the criminal police. This is all the more important as Liechtenstein does not have an independent intelligence service.
Command services
The command services are a classic service department that provides a wide range of support services for the operational units. The central point is the state emergency and operations center , which receives all emergency calls, telephone calls and alarms via the emergency numbers 112, 117 and 118. The responsible dispatchers coordinate the operations there, provide the necessary safety and rescue organizations and make various inquiries. Other areas such as logistics, IT and the area of international police cooperation with the Sirene Office , the National Central Bureau of Interpol and the contact point for Europol are also affiliated with the command services . The office of the international police cooperation serves as a single point of contact (SPOC) for all incoming and outgoing international requests for information from the national police.
The state prison is also part of the command services department. However, technical responsibility for enforcement issues lies with the Ministry of Justice. The prison has 18 cells, its own women's wing and two outdoor courtyards. Investigative and administrative arrests are carried out. For the execution of prison sentences, the prisoners are transferred to Austrian prisons.
Special police forces
The state police have various special units managed in the militia system .
- Intervention unit: This is the largest special unit of the national police. The main tasks include dealing with situations with increased security police requirements (e.g. arrest of violent criminals) as well as protecting people and buildings at risk.
- Observation unit: Specially trained police officers are responsible for covertly observing suspects in order to obtain evidence. Due to the small size of the country, the national police work closely with their Swiss colleagues in the observation area. A trilateral police cooperation agreement between Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria on police cooperation provides the legal basis for this.
- Alpine cadre: In the event of incidents in alpine terrain such as mountain, flight, ski and avalanche accidents, the Alpine cadre is used to record the facts.
- Service dogs : The state police have a small number of trained guard dogs on duty.
- Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVI): In the event of major accidents or crimes with numerous fatalities, the specialists of the DVI team are deployed to identify the victims.
history
Structure and development in the 20th century
In 1932 the Princely Liechtenstein Security Corps was conceived as a uniformed and armed civil guard to maintain peace, order and security. Seven police officers started their service in April 1933 after completing their training at the Austrian gendarmerie school in Bregenz and were quartered in the government building in Vaduz . From 1937 onwards they were supported by a steadily growing number of auxiliary police officers, today's riot police.
As early as the end of the 1950s, it became apparent that the existing structure of the security corps as a unitary police force was no longer up to date. Therefore, at the beginning of the 1960s, the then police chief Josef Brunhart initiated a reorganization, which was approved by the Princely Government in 1964. The first division of the corps into the three operational departments of administration, investigation and traffic made it possible to specialize in police work. The increasing internationalization of police work was taken into account in 1960 when it joined Interpol.
At the end of the 1980s, a contemporary police law was drawn up and, following the murder of the chief of the criminal police, Heinz Hassler , in 1986 the intervention unit made up of police grenadiers. Due to a lack of space in the government building, a new police building was built in Vaduz, which was adapted to the needs of a modern police organization.
In 1995 the first women were sworn in as police officers by the state police. In 1997 a new uniform took place, which visually marked the change from the security corps to the state police. A year later, the government launched a review of the organizational structure of the state police in order to reflect this change within the organization. This review ultimately led to a reduction to two operational departments - the security and traffic police and the criminal police.
The national police in the 21st century
In 2000, a confidential report by the German Federal Intelligence Service on alleged money laundering activities in Liechtenstein, which was leaked to the media, triggered a financial center crisis in Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein was put on a black list of non-cooperative states in the fight against money laundering by the Working Group on Measures to Combat Money Laundering (FATF). The Princely Government appointed a special public prosecutor and had the allegations investigated. Austrian economic investigators stayed in Liechtenstein for almost a year from May 2000 to March 2001 to support the criminal investigators of the state police in the complex investigations and investigations of the facts.
The majority of the allegations turned out to be unfounded, but the investigations of the special prosecutor uncovered deficits in the official defense measures against money laundering. This triggered a series of organizational and legislative measures. Among other things, a money laundering reporting office, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), was set up and a unit for combating economic offenses and organized crime (EWOK) was set up at the state police in 2001, which still exists today as the economic crime commissioner within the criminal police.
International police cooperation became more and more important, especially since an economic unit of the state police began to investigate financial crimes professionally. The trilateral police cooperation agreement on cross-border police cooperation between Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland was concluded in 2001, which enables close and far-reaching police cooperation with Liechtenstein's immediate neighbors. In December 2011, Liechtenstein joined the Schengen area , which on the one hand eliminated border controls with Austria and, on the other hand, integrated the state police into the Schengen information system for tracing persons and property via their SIERNE office . Liechtenstein has been a member of Europol since 2014 and the national police can benefit from the large network of liaison officers at the headquarters in The Hague as well as from the in-depth analyzes of various criminal phenomena. The state police will also accredit a liaison officer at Europol and thus also be present outside of Liechtenstein for the first time.
equipment
The sleeve badge of the state police consists of the small coat of arms of the House of Liechtenstein crowned with a prince's hat on a blue background, which is framed by two red and gold branches of laurel. Above it is the words “Landespolizei”, below it “Principality of Liechtenstein”. The state police have motorcycles and patrol cars.
The way to the police
In principle, service with the national police is only possible for Liechtenstein citizens . The state parliament can, however, grant exceptions if, for very specific reasons, foreign specialists are required as police officers for the state police. This was the case in 2001 when, in the wake of the financial center crisis in Liechtenstein, an economic unit had to be quickly set up with the national police and a sufficient number of qualified financial investigators could not be recruited in Liechtenstein.
If the state police require specialists for management and special police functions, they can also be recruited externally, provided they have a relevant university or technical college diploma or an equivalent qualification. The police training must then take place in-house and at foreign police training institutions. In the past, this was the way in which various financial investigators, as well as department heads and police chiefs, found their way to the state police.
Normally, however, the way to the national police leads through the Police School Eastern Switzerland in Amriswil ( Canton Thurgau ), where Liechtenstein police aspirants are also trained. Due to the size of the corps, the state police does not have its own training facility. The requirements that interested parties have to meet in order to be admitted to the written entrance exam and the sports test are set out in the Police Act.
literature
- From the “country woman” to the state police . Article in the Public Safety magazine(July / August 2013 issue).
Web links
- Website of the State Police of the Principality of Liechtenstein
- Herbert Wille: Police. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein .
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.landespolizei.li/Adressen/Landespolizei.aspx
- ↑ a b Organization chart of the state police
- ^ Landespolizei.li: Organization
- ↑ Steffen Arora: Schengen: The last days of the border post . Article on DiePresse.com from March 18, 2008.
- ↑ Website of the Police School Eastern Switzerland