Police organisation
Bundespolizei
Austria’s single national police force within the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Its nine Landespolizeidirektionen are federal authorities, not police forces belonging to the Länder.
At a glance
- Official name
- Bundespolizei
- Commonly rendered in English as
- Austrian Federal Police — a rendering in common use, not the organisation’s own name.
- System
- Austria
- Level of government
- National
- Kind of body
- National police force
- Status
- Currently operating
- Facts last checked against sources
- 13 September 2026
What it is
Austria and Germany share a word and not a system. The Austrian Bundespolizei is the general police force for the whole country; the nine Landespolizeidirektionen through which it operates are federal authorities under the interior ministry, so Austria has no Land police in the German sense. Reading the two federal republics as structurally alike on the strength of the shared name is the single most common error about Austrian policing.
What it covers
The whole of Austria, through nine Landespolizeidirektionen that are federal authorities.
Broad responsibilities
- General policing across Austria, through the nine territorial directorates
Who it answers to
Within the Bundesministerium für Inneres (Federal Ministry of the Interior).
Elsewhere on this site
- Who polices what — how Austria is structured, against other systems
Other organisations to compare
- Bundeskriminalamt — Austria
- Bundespolizei — Germany
Where this connects
Institutions: National police.
Sources
Federal Ministry of the Interior of Austria (Bundesministerium für Inneres) — police and security
Bundesministerium für Inneres (Austria) · Government publication · link verified 2026-07-26
The Federal Ministry of the Interior's official portal, read directly. Supports that the national police (Bundespolizei), the federal criminal police office (Bundeskriminalamt), the state-protection and intelligence directorate (DSN), the special unit Cobra, and the nine Landespolizeidirektionen all sit within the federal Ministry of the Interior — establishing that Austria has a single national police under the BMI, with the nine territorial directorates being federal authorities rather than separate Land forces.