The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (, , abbreviated ) is the federal investigative police agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It is headquartered in Wiesbaden, Hesse, and maintains major branch offices in Berlin and Meckenheim near Bonn. It has been headed by Holger Münch since December 2014.
Primary jurisdiction of the agency includes coordinating cooperation between the federation and state police forces; investigating cases of international organized crime, terrorism and other cases related to national security; counterterrorism; the protection of members of the constitutional institutions, and of federal witnesses. When requested by the respective state authorities or the federal minister of the interior, it also assumes responsibility for investigations in certain large-scale cases. Furthermore, the Attorney General of Germany can direct it to investigate cases of special public interest.
History
The Federal Criminal Police Office was established in 1951, and Wiesbaden, in the State of Hesse, was designated as its seat.
The German police in general is – by definition of the German constitution – organized at the level of the states of the federation (e.g. North Rhine-Westphalia Police, Bavarian State Police, Berlin Police). Exceptions are the Federal Police, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the German Parliament Police. Because of historic reasons all these federal police forces have a specific and limited legal jurisdiction. This is because after World War II, it was decided that there should not be another all-powerful police force like the Reich Security Main Office (consisting of the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst, the Reichskriminalpolizeiamt).
Missions
The formation of the BKA is based on several articles of the German constitution, which give the federal government the exclusive ability to pass laws on the coordination of criminal policing in Germany.
The jurisdictions of the BKA are defined in the Bundeskriminalamtgesetz (BKAG): Investigation and threat prevention in cases of national and international terrorism. Investigating the international trade with narcotics, arms, munitions, explosives and internationally organized money-laundering and counterfeiting. Investigating crimes when a state public prosecutor, a state police force or the state's interior minister, the federal public prosecutor or the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany) task the BKA with a criminal investigation. Personal protection of the constitutional bodies of Germany and their foreign guests, e.g. the President of Germany, Parliament of Germany, Cabinet of Germany, Federal Constitutional Court and other institutions), the BKA also investigates major crimes against these institutions. Protection of federal witnesses. Investigating crimes against critical infrastructures in Germany. Coordinating cooperation between the federal and state police forces (especially state criminal investigation authorities) and with foreign investigative authorities (in Germany the state police forces are mainly responsible for policing). Coordinating the cooperation with international law enforcement agencies like the FBI. The BKA is also the national central bureau for Europol and Interpol. Additionally, the BKA provides liaison officers for over 60 German embassies worldwide, who work with local law enforcement agencies. Collecting and analyzing criminal intelligence as a national crime office. Providing IT-Infrastructure for German law enforcement agencies, e.g. police databases , Schengen Information System, Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), Anti-Terror-Database (ATD). Providing assistance to other national and international law enforcement agencies in forensic and criminological research matters. Acting as a clearing house for identifying and cataloging images and information on victims of child sexual exploitation, similar to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States.
Organization
Since its establishment in 1951, the BKA's number of staff has grown substantially. This has notably been driven by the fight against the left-wing terrorism in the 1970s and the internationalization of crime in the decades thererafter. Thus its structure has been undergoing constant reorganized. The last major reform was implemented in July 2016 and resulted in the structure described below.
The BKA is currently organized in eleven divisions. The President of the BKA is supported by its staff in the so-called "Leitungsstab" (which has not the status of a division):