Agency Name: | Security Information Service |
Nativename: | Bezpečnostní informační služba |
Nativename A: | (BIS) |
Motto: | Audi, Vide, Tace (Hear, See, Be silent) |
Seal: | BIS logo.jpg |
Formed: | 30 July 1994 |
Preceding1: | Security Information Service of the Czech Republic (1992) |
Preceding2: | (Czechoslovak) Federal Security Information Service |
Jurisdiction: | Government of the Czech Republic |
Headquarters: | Prague, Czech Republic |
Employees: | 1,000 (2019 estimate)[1] |
Budget: | $65 million (as of 2017)[2] |
Chief1 Position: | Director |
Parent Agency: | Government of the Czech Republic |
Website: | www.bis.cz |
The Security Information Service (BIS, Czech: Bezpečnostní informační služba) is the primary domestic national intelligence agency of the Czech Republic.[3] It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Czech Republic's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, both domestically and abroad. It also reports to and advises the Government of the Czech Republic on national security issues and situations that threaten the security of the nation.
The BIS headquarters is located in Stodůlky, Prague 5. The Security Information Service reports directly to the Government, Prime Minister and President of the Czech Republic and is overseen by the Permanent Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. It is under the command of the Government and organized militarily.
The BIS is a statutory body under the Act No. 154/1994 Coll., on the Security Information Service and it is strictly apolitical and has limited police powers; BIS can detain, arrest or interrogate suspects only as part of its internal oversight.[4] The service reports to the Government, Prime Minister and President of the Czech Republic and its activities are regulated and overseen by the Government, Permanent Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and its own internal audit.[5] The service is headed by the Director who is appointed by the Prime Minister with consent of the Committee on Security of the Chamber of Deputies.[6]
The current director is, who has served since 15 August 2016, after being sworn in by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.[7]
The Security Information Service performs duties associated with the analysis, democracy and constitutionality, terrorism, counter-intelligence, cybersecurity, organized crime, proliferation and use of strategically important intelligence regarding the fields of politics, economics and intelligence within the territory of the Czech Republic.[8]