Bundeskriminalamt (BKA)

Protection Tasks and Prevention

Staatsbesuch, hier gepanzerte Autos auf dem Rollfeld vor einem Flugzeug

The BKA is responsible for protecting the members of the constitutional organs of the Federation and, in special cases, for protecting their guests from foreign countries. The BKA also protects witnesses, their family members and closely associated persons if the corresponding investigation is conducted by the BKA itself.

Preventing crime is better than investigating it. It makes more sense to keep crimes from being committed than to devote time and effort to pursuing criminals after the fact. During the past years, the Bundeskriminalamt and Germany’s state police forces have been placing increasing emphasis on crime prevention.Special concepts have been developed and applied in programs. Looking at what is done in other countries has brought a number of interesting approaches to Germany.

Crime prevention has become as important a task for the police as the pursuit of criminals. Besides reducing the opportunities for committing crimes, prevention work is particularly aimed at expanding technological approaches to prevention.

Electronic immobilizers in cars and improved antiburglary measures for houses and apartments are good examples. And such efforts have been successful – there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of crimes committed in these areas during the past years.

The Bundeskriminalamt is a member of various international crime prevention bodies and also participates in the management of the Police Crime Prevention project. It belongs to the German Crime Prevention Forum and provides crime prevention advice to all interested parties through a collection of information known as the ”Infopool Crime Fighting and Traffic Security Work”. The date for the start-up and input into the new database has not yet been fixed.