Hungary
Hungary (Hungarian: Magyarország) is a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004. It is in Central Europe bordered by Slovakia to the north, Romania to the east, Serbia to the south, Croatia to the southwest, Slovenia to the west, Austria to the northwest, and Ukraine to the northeast.
Country Information
- Budapest
- 93,000 km2
- 10.4 million
Law Enforcement Agencies
Counter Terrorism Centre (Terrorelhárítási Központ)
The Counter Terrorism Centre of Hungary (TEK) is a specialised law enforcement agency under the direct supervision of the Minister of the Interior, having exclusive competence in counter terrorism coordination and operations nationwide. It was established by the government in 2010 with a view to integrating the counter terrorism tasks of law enforcement and civilian secret services into a single organisation.
TEK has three professional directorates: the Intelligence Directorate, the Operations Directorate and the Personal Protection Directorate.
The Intelligence Directorate is responsible for preventing and detecting terrorist acts and any related criminal acts planned to be committed in Hungary. It uses various intelligence techniques applied by law enforcement agencies and security services, it collects, analyses and evaluates information, monitors radicalisation, does the national level assessment of terrorist threat, as well as the coordination of the activities of all the agencies having a role in countering terrorism.
In addition to their counter terrorism tasks, the Operations Directorate – upon requests of the investigative authorities – captures armed persons or individuals being in the possession of weapons suspected of having committed a criminal offence, interrupts violent crimes committed against persons, escorts individuals under extradition or transfer arrest, transfers convicted persons through Hungary, takes security measures against individuals dangerous to themselves or to the public, and conducts negotiations. The Operations Directorate has various special operational capabilities, such as EOD, snipers, canine units, combat medics.
The Personal Protection Directorate plans and executes the protection of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Prosecutor General. Their tasks include especially providing personal (close) protection, securing trips and routes, securing residence, office and programme venues, as well as EOD and technical securing. The Personal Protection Directorate has special CBRN capabilities also.
TEK actively takes part both in bilateral and multilateral international cooperation: it is engaged in direct networking with the liaison officers accredited to Hungary, communicates with partner services through secure channels, participates in international organisations and events, and is involved in multilateral professional forums, such as ATLAS, APPS and Europol's ECTC.
Contact Details
Phone
- 00-36-1-265-6200
Hungarian National Police (Magyar Köztársaság Rendőrsége)
The Hungarian National Police undertakes all policing duties, including criminal investigation, patrol activities, traffic policing and border control. It is led by the National Police Commissioner under the control of the Minister of the Interior. The central controlling body is the National Police Headquarters which has 20 county police headquarters (Budapest and 19 counties), with a further subdivision of town (district in Budapest) police departments.
There are also several specialised authorities with special competence under the National Police headquarters, like the Rapid Response and Special Police Services (highly militarised service responsible for strengthening the local police forces and perform as riot police), including the National Bureau of Investigation (special investigation bureau with nationwide competence on the field of transnational and organised crime) and the Airport Police.
The activities of the Hungarian National Police include:
- exercising the powers of the general criminal investigation authority;
- preventing and detecting crimes;
- exercising the powers of the minor offence authority;
- traffic authority and traffic enforcement tasks;
- law enforcement tasks to maintain public order;
- ensuring the protection of persons taking part in criminal proceedings and of members of the authority conducting the proceedings;
- protecting persons important to Hungary’s interests;
- protecting designated objects;
- protecting the state border.
Contact Details
Phone
- +36 (1) 443 5500
National Tax and Customs Administration (Nemzeti Adó- és Vámhivatal)
The National Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA) is under the control of the Minister of Finance. It was established following the merger of the Tax Administration and the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard in 2011. In addition to the usual administrative tasks of any tax and customs agencies, the NTCA is also competent in criminal investigations with full investigative (police) powers within the mandated crime areas. Criminal offences investigated by the NTCA are mainly financial and economic crimes damaging national and the EU budgets. The Hungarian Financial Intelligence Unit in charge of receiving, analysing, and disseminating suspicious transaction/activity reports carries out its activities within the NTCA. The NTCA has seconded an officer to the Europol National Unit who works there part-time and it has been represented by a liaison officer at the Hungarian Liaison Bureau at Europol since 2002.
Contact Details
Phone
- +36 (1) 428 5100