Law enforcement in Austria is the responsibility of the Directorate General for Public Security, a subdivision of the Federal Ministry of the Interior located at Herrengasse 7 in Vienna. Over 20,000 police officers are on duty in the Federal Police at more than 1,000 police stations. On lakes and rivers the federal police has over 70 boats and other craft to act as the water police.
The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for:
In general, the nine States of Austria do not operate state law enforcement agencies, except in their specific areas of competence, namely nature conservation and wildlife protection.
See main article: Municipal police (Austria).
Some Austrian municipalities operate a form of municipal law enforcement agency. In some municipalities, this is known as the City Police (German: Stadtpolizei), or sometimes Community Police (German: Gemeindepolizei) or Community Security Guard (German: Gemeindesicherheitswache). In others, responsibility for policing lies with the federal government and municipalities cannot call these agencies "police", instead naming them "order offices" (German: Ordnungsamt, Ordnungswache), similar in function to a bylaw enforcement officer or code enforcement. In some cases, these organisations are established as private corporations, owned by the municipality, such as the Security Service (German: Ordnungsdienst) of Linz.
Police officers in Austria must meet certain requirements. These requirements include being at least 18 years of age, Austrian citizenship, an ability to act (not burdened by physical disability), impeccable reputation, Class B driver's licence, if conscripted to the armed forces, to have completed that conscription, and a swimming badge to prove swimming ability.[1]