Austrian Police Research Articles

Policing Subversion in Post-Napoleonic Europe: Austria and the Greek Revolution of 1821–1830

This contribution examines the position of the Habsburg Empire vis-à-vis the Greek Revolution of 1821–1830 with a special focus on policing. It suggests that with its undeniable transnational significance and perceived threat against the status quo after 1815, the Greek Revolution pushed the Austrian state to enforce a variety of police measures to contain this alleged threat. These measures ranged from passport and border control directed towards moving Philhellenes, to monitoring Greek refugees and exiles, and using unofficial agents and consuls abroad to gather information on the rebellious Greeks. The article uses the Austrian police policies towards the Greeks as a vehicle to understand more widely how nineteenth-century policing functioned. Based on policing, the paper thus adds to the intellectual and administrative history of modern statehood.

Policing and planning cross-border surveillance during the cold war. The South Tyrolean case

ABSTRACT This essay investigates the organisation and plans for cross-border police surveillance during the 1960s and 1970s in the key border area of South Tyrol, in Northern Italy. At a time when political and ethno-nationalist terrorism appeared, the threats it posed took on an international character. This study seeks to understand the re-organisation of police surveillance and the militarisation of borders in peacetime, investigating continuities and ruptures in the history of policing in Republican Italy; it focuses on the exchange of knowledge between security experts and the transformation of organisation and practices of police officers with the task of monitoring borders. This leads on to propose conceptual reflections on the formats, effects and boundary-setting in transnational police actions, as well as on the spaces of interaction between transnational actors in the recent past. Which of these are devices of police border surveillance? How were areas of competence assigned to different Public Security bodies? What did they represent for the history of the police of Republican Italy? How was cross-border surveillance negotiated and how was it organised? How did the exchange of knowledge develop police cooperation and how did this influence diplomatic relations between Italy and Austria during the cold War? Cross-border surveillance took on an important role in the relations between states in negotiating areas of surveillance and legitimate competencies. This study is based on unpublished documents created by the Ufficio Affari Riservati (U.A.R.) of the Italian Ministry of the Interior, which make it possible to reconstruct an organisation chart of the civilian and military corps engaged at the border and to investigate the cross-border Italian–Austrian police cooperation in its theoretical and technical-scientific aspects.

Differentiation between drug-type, fibre-type and intermediate-type in cannabis samples: HPLC-UV versus GC-FID

Cannabis sativa is known to be the most abused illegal drug worldwide. To date it is not only used as a medicine but has been established as a lifestyle product. The most relevant phytocannabinoids represent the ingredients delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), whereby only 9-THC shows a psychoactive effect. Since 2017, the so-called CBD-hemp containing CBD as main ingredient is distributed in many countries as a legal alternative. In these products, 9-THC must not exceed a certain percentage. It is hardly possible to differentiate between THC-hemp and CBD-hemp presenting a major challenge for authorities. Therefore, there is the need to develop fast and efficient analysis methods to distinguish between fibre-type, drug-type and intermediate-type cannabis products. The aim of this study was to compare two simple and inexpensive HPLC-UV and GC-FID methods for their ability to quantify phytocannabinoids in dried cannabis plant material. For this purpose, a set of 37 fresh and dried cannabis samples randomly chosen from seizures of Austrian police was subject to complementary quantification of 9-THC and CBD. After having taken into account decomposition of certain phytocannabinoids, the result of this quantitative study showed good correlation between HPLC-UV and GC-FID regardless of quantifying cannabis leaves or buds.

Determination of cathinone and cathine in Khat plant material by LC–MS/MS: Fresh vs. dried leaves

The consumption of Khat leaves represents an ancient kind of drug abuse mainly observed in Eastern Africa and the Arab Peninsula among adult men. For this purpose, the leaves are directly collected from the shrub “Catha edulis” prior to extensive chewing process. Seizures in Europe are rare, since the leaves have to undergo quick transportation: After a short period of time, the harvested leaves decompose and suffer in decrease of concentration of the active ingredient cathinone, which makes long term transportation difficult. As an alternative, plant material can be dried to increase life period. In the past years, an increasing number of seizures were made by Austrian police, however, the content of cathinone and cathine in dry material is widely unknown.In this work, a seizure of fresh Khat leaves was compared with two seizures of dried material in terms of concentration of cathinone and cathine using LC–MS/MS analysis. For fresh leaves, a purity grade was found to be 0.115-0.158% for cathinone and 0.172-0.192% for cathine, respectively. In contrast, subsequent storage of dried Khat leaves over months led to a dramatic loss of cathinone: Analysis of two seizures revealed that concentration of cathinone dropped to 0.021-0.023%.These findings are intended to serve as a guideline for Justice authorities to estimate the content of the controlled ingredients of Khat leaves in future.

Enantioselective separation of Novel Psychoactive Substances using a Lux® AMP 3 μm column and HPLC-UV

The abuse of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) still cause severe problems. A lot of them contain a stereogenic centre which leads to possible different pharmacological effects of the enantiomers.The aim of this study was to establish an enantioselective HPLC-UV method with applicability to a broad spectrum of NPS. Different compound classes including mainly amphetamines, cathinones, ketamines, pyrovalerones and benzofuries were tested for successful enantioseparation by one common chromatographic condition. All NPS samples were bought in various internet stores, were sythesized inhouse or were seized by the Austrian police. A commercially available Phenomenex LUX® AMP 3 μm, 150 × 4,6 mm column served as chiral stationary phase (CSP) for the enantiomeric separation experiments. This CSP has been developed particularly for enantioresolution of high abundant synthetic chiral drugs such as MDMA and amphetamine. All measurements were performed under isocratic conditions. For method optimisation, the effects of different mobile phase compositions, different pH values and temperatures on enantioseparation were investigated. Final mobile phase consisted of ammonium bicarbonate solution (5 mM) adjusted with concentrated ammonia to a pH of 11.3 mixed with acetonitrile in a ratio of 70:30. All in all, 83 of 95 analysed NPS were separated in their enantiomers successfully within 40 min. Furthermore, the method was found to be suitable for simultaneous enantioseparations, for enantiomeric elution order determinations, enantiomeric purity checks and for positional isomer separations. To prove the repeatability of the method, an intra- and an interday validation was performed successfully. By means of the wide applicability of the chosen column all separated NPS were shown to be traded as racemic mixtures.

The Legal Dispute Between Václav Hanka and David Kuh in the Light of Actions Taken by the Austrian Police Against the ‘Awakeners’ of the Czech Nation

This essay presents the activity of the Austrian secret police that led to legal action being taken up in 1859. That year, Václav Hanka sued David Kuh, the founder and editor of the Prague newspaper “Tagesbote aus Böhmen”, for defamation, after the latter published a series of anonymous articles in his paper, accusing Hanka of forging The Queen’s Court Manuscript and The Green Mountain Manuscript. For several decades, both works influenced the shaping of the Czech political nation, and as it later transpired, the Aus­trian police were behind the attacks on their authenticity. Further piquancy is added by the fact that thirty years later, Hanka was indeed recognised as the author of the aforementioned manuscripts.

Enantiomeric separation of Novel Psychoactive Substances by capillary electrophoresis using (+)-18-crown-6-tetracarboxylic acid as chiral selector.

In the recent years, hundreds of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) have entered both the European and the global drug market. These drugs, which are mainly used for recreational matters, have caused serious social problems. Every year, the spectrum of these misused drugs is enlarged by new derivatives, which are produced by modifications of basic structures of already well-known substances. Additionally, a lot of them possess a stereogenic center which leads to 2 enantiomeric forms. The fact that the pharmacological effects and potencies of the enantiomers of these chiral NPS may differ can be assumed from a broad spectrum of active pharmaceutical ingredients. For this reason, analytical method development regarding enantiomeric separation for these classes of substances is of great pharmaceutical and medical interest. The aim of this work was to create an easy-to-prepare chiral capillary electrophoresis method for the enantioseparation of NPS which contains a primary amino group by means of (+)-18-crown-6-tetracarboxylic acid as chiral selector. Novel Psychoactive Substances were purchased at various Internet stores or represent samples seized by Austrian police. The effects of selector concentration, the electrolyte composition, and the addition of organic modifiers to the background electrolyte on enantioseparation were investigated. Under optimized conditions, the use of 20-mM (+)-18-crown-6-tetracarboxylic acid, 10-mM Tris, and 30-mM citric acid buffer at pH 2.10 turned out to be effective. Fifteen of 24 tested NPS were resolved in their enantiomers within 15minutes. It was found that all NPS were traded as racemic mixtures.

Micro-HPLC–UV analysis of cocaine and its adulterants in illicit cocaine samples seized by Austrian police from 2012 to 2017

ABSTRACTThe worldwide consumption of illicit drugs presents a big problem in terms of health care and prosecution. In the recent years, hundreds of novel psychoactive substances came up and were traded through the Internet, but there is still a big demand for classic illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, cannabis, and ecstasy. Among these, cocaine particularly is frequently altered not only with excipients but also with other physiologically active substances. The purpose of this work was to estimate the trend of cocaine purity and abundance of its adulterants in samples seized by Austrian police from 2012 to 2017. A micro-HPLC method for quantification of cocaine and its most common adulterants was developed and validated using gradient elution and UV detection at four wavelengths. A total of 110 cocaine samples were analyzed. In all the samples, cocaine was present as hydrochloric salt. Caffeine, procaine, levamisole, phenacetin, lidocaine, and benzocaine were the most abundant adulterants.

Die Festnahme Von Vojta Náprstek Im Jahre 1847

The study presents an edition of a previously unknown manuscript by Vojta Náprstek from 1847, the original of which is deposited in the Vienna University Archive. It is a detailed description of Náprstek’s arrest and stay in custody in the year 1847; during his second year studying law in Vienna. This is an authentic testimony of Vojta Náprstek that he wrote as a defence after the police had warned the university about the incident. The document represents one of a few pieces of proof of Náprstek’s first clashes with the Austrian police. At the same time it allows a new, more sober interpretation of this event, than the one that used to be presented especially in older litetarure.

Postal Culture: Writing and Reading Letters in Post-unification Italy. Gabriella Romani. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. Pp. x+272.

<i>Postal Culture: Writing and Reading Letters in Post-unification Italy</i>. Gabriella Romani. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. Pp. x+272.

The Failure of the Austrian and Yugoslav Police to Repress the Croatian Ustaša in Austria, 1929–1934

Since the 1970s, historiography about the pre-World War II phase of the Croatian Ustaša concentrated on Italian and Hungarian state support for Ante Pavelić's national-separatist/terrorist organization from approximately 1929–1934, and identified Nazi support when it became more significant in the late 1930s and put the group in charge of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941. More recent scholarship has investigated the support of Croatian exiles in the United States and Argentina for the Ustaša movement, as well as how the Ustaša regime, once in power, tried to legitimate its policies of racial “cleansing” and social revolution against capitalism and secularism. The first aim of this article is to return to the early period of the Ustaša, when it was a terrorist organization, and to show that it had an important base in Austria that senior Austrian police officials tolerated. The article, therefore, takes a somewhat different position from that of historian Arnold Suppan, who argued that the Austrian police could find no evidence that the Ustaša in Austria had been involved in terrorism, and that the Austrian government had made a good faith effort to expel Ustaša members. The fact that elements of the Austrian police indeed knew about the Ustaša network and protected certain senior members supports historian Gerhard Jagschitz's argument that the Vienna police had not turned over a new leaf in the postwar period and had not shed all political activities. However, Jagschitz concentrated on the problems surrounding the establishment of a domestic intelligence agency in the 1920s, showing how it ultimately was not effective. This article concentrates on 1929–1934, demonstrating that while the Austrian political police was not all-knowing, certain decisions not to share what it knew about ultra-nationalist Croatian terrorism damaged the Austrian police's international reputation. Second, this article argues that the Yugoslav police possibly turned to shadowy extra-judicial groups to carry out assassinations against Ustaša figures, in part because the Austrian police were not aggressive enough in repressing the organization. This adds an additional factor to the interpretations of historians James Sadkovich and Mario Jareb, who contend that Yugoslav police violence was an extension of the Serbian dictatorship's attempt to repress Croatian nationalism by any means necessary.

Reflections on Global Justice: Norm Diffusion and Strategic Accommodation

Prosecuting Heads of State. Edited by Ellen L. Lutz, Caitlin Reiger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 326 pp., $32.00 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-521-75670-9). Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans. By Jelena Subotic. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. 201 pp., $35.00 hardback (ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-4802-7). On December 10, 2010, Ivo Sanader, Croatia's former prime minister (2003–2009), was arrested by Austrian police on a Croatian arrest warrant while attempting to flee to the United States (Jutarnji List 2010). Sanader's arrest on charges of financial corruption coincided with a new impetus to prosecute formerly untouchable Croatian elites from Sanader's ruling party and constitutes part of a growing global trend to confront crimes perpetrated by former ruling elites that range from financial embezzlement to crimes against humanity and genocide through courtroom prosecutions. Indeed, Sanader's December 2010 arrest can be situated within an emerging global justice norm that political elites responsible for serious wrongdoings should be held criminally liable for past abuses. This emergent global justice norm has been the focus of a growing body of literature that attempts to deepen our understanding of the extent to which prosecutorial confrontations with past abuses either advances or hinders transitions from authoritarianism, conflict, or both.1 Two recent books, Ellen Lutz and Caitlin Reiger's edited volume Prosecuting Heads of State and Jelena Subotic's Hijacked Justice , explore the emergence of global justice and its impact upon states in transition in what constitute two valuable contributions to transitional justice and international relations literature. As illustrated by Sanader's recent arrest, the ever-growing ranks of heads of state or government who enter the doors of international, domestic, or hybrid courts as defendants attest to the deepening entrenchment of a prosecutorial norm in international society. Yet, parallel to the proliferation of prosecutorial responses to past abuses, social scientific investigations of the impact of courtroom prosecutorions upon societies in transition, or societies in conflict, raise troubling questions regarding the relationship between criminal justice and transitional justice (Peskin 2008; Lamont 2010). It is within the above context that Prosecuting Heads of States and Hijacked Justice concisely …

Characteristics of Police Officer Suicides in the Federal Austrian Police Corps

Suicide rates among police officers may be high because of strong occupational stressors. This study examined the suicide rate and suicide characteristics among police officers in the Federal Austrian Police Force. All suicides among policemen during the period 1996-2006 were analyzed retrospectively on the basis of personalized police record files from all Austrian police departments. Information on sex, age, marital status, children, region, method and place of suicide, suicide notes, position, and length of service was extracted from these files. The general Austrian population, adjusted for sex and age composition, served as the comparison group. The suicide rate among male police officers was 30.2/100,000 (SD 11.0), which was comparable to the suicide rate in the adjusted general population (30.5/100,000; SD 2.9). The female police officer suicide rate was 1.8/100,000, while the corresponding suicide rate of the adjusted female general population was 12.5/100,000 (SD 1.7). Firearms were the most frequent suicide method (77.8%), and the incidence of suicide notes was 30.8%. Suicide rates among police officers seem comparable to those of the age-adjusted general population. Given the healthy-worker effect, these results still suggest an increased risk of suicide among police officers. These findings should stimulate further research on stressors and risk factors for suicide among officers and should also encourage departments to increase awareness regarding suicidal signs among officers.

Between Conspiracy and Revolution Genesis and Consequences of the 1846 Revolution in Cracow und Galicia Perception und Range of Action of the Habsburg Police

The essay is concerned with the genesis and the consequences of the revolution in Cracow and Galicia in 1846 and with the reflections and counteractions of the Habsburg state police. Based on archive materials from Brno and Vienna, the author analyzes both the police precautions against the revolutionary propaganda and activities in the Polish parts of the Habsburg Monarchy as well as the responsibilities of the Police Court Office in Vienna with respect to the revolutionary outbreak of 1846. After the revolution of 1830/31 in the Russian parts of Poland (the so-called Congress Poland) had been suppressed, Polish emigrants (especially in France and Belgium) developed a very intense activity to reestablish the former Polish Kingdom by sending emissaries, publishing pamphlets, manifestos and appeals, and especially by the means of secret societies and associations. During the 1830s, however, the Habsburg police authorities (the Police Directorate in Lemberg/Lwiw and the Police Court Office in Vienna) managed to control and neutralize such underground activities thanks to the persistent confidential network of Baron Leopold Sacher-Masoch, and possessed extensive information about the character, range and leaders of the impending revolutionary outbreak. Rising numbers of imprisoned revolutionaries and legal proceedings against them as well as the successful elimination of the Przemysl conspiracy at the beginning of 1840s confirm this assertion. On the other side, Austrian police had not been able to prevent new and new emissaries from entering Galicia and to forestall the forbidden revolutionary prints to be smuggled there. Moreover, especially in military and security matters, there were striking differences between the Civil and Military Governor, archduke Ferdinand, and police chiefs Sacher-Masoch in Lemberg and Count Sedlnitzky in Vienna, which made an efficient upheaval prevention far more difficult. Post-revolutionary actions and measures of the Habsburg authorities demonstrate their clear inability to champion substantial reforms (especially the removal of corvees), despite tendencies to restrict the judicial powers of local landlords through establishing imperial districts as institutions of first judicial instance in Galicia. The Police took both preventive (strict passport and foreigner control) as well as repressive (imprisonment of revolutionaries and passing of trials) measures, while Count Sedlnitzky's attempts to establish a gendarmerie in Galicia had been delayed by administrative reforms. On such a basis, and especially after receiving reports on a widespread dissatisfaction among peasants and noblemen alike, the desired long-term safeguarding of order and security could not be established.

Female criminals—It's not always the offender!

Numerous crimes (including murder), all having a common denominator, occurred in Germany and Austria between 1993 and 2009. All of these cases presented with identical female DNA traces being found at the crime scene. The crimes committed differed markedly, as did the suspects involved, which were of varied origin. Many of these cases could be solved. However, none of the suspects could identify an involved female. Fourteen of these cases (including one murder) occurred in Upper Austria. A special task force of the Austrian police, together with the Institute of Legal Medicine in Salzburg, began systematically searching for errors in the investigative process after the cases became more and more incoherent and nebulous. In the end, the DNA trace evidence was shown to be contaminated. A woman involved in the manufacture of the cotton swabs turned out to be the source of the female DNA profile. Following this, several products of other manufacturers were tested for contamination with DNA. It was noted that cotton swabs which had been sterilised with radiation were often contaminated. As a result, it is recommended that the manufacturing process, as well as the products themselves used in collection of DNA trace evidence, should be re-evaluated with the emphasis on preventing contamination.

Introduction: Legalization and World Politics

In many issue-areas, the world is witnessing a move to law. As the century turned, governments and individuals faced the following international legal actions. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain's ban on homosexuals in the armed forces violates the right to privacy, contravening Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicted Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic during a NATO bombing campaign to force Yugoslav forces out of Kosovo. Milosevic remains in place in Belgrade, but Austrian police, bearing a secret indictment from the International Criminal Tribunal, arrested a Bosnian Serb general who was attending a conference in Vienna. In economic affairs the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body found in favor of the United States and against the European Union (EU) regarding European discrimination against certain Latin American banana exporters. A U.S. district court upheld the constitutionality of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) against claims that its dispute-resolution provisions violated U. S. sovereignty. In a notable environmental judgment, the new Law of the Sea Tribunal ordered the Japanese to cease all fishing for southern bluefin tuna for the rest of the year.

Allied High Commission for Austria

The report of the United States High Commissioner for Austria (Donnelly), covering the last quarter of the year 1950, listed the communist-led general strike and its subsequent repression as the most outstanding event for the period under review. The Federal Chancellor of Austria (Figl) charged the Soviet element of the quadripartite government for Austria with aiding and abetting the general strike, and interference with the Austrian police in its attempt to restore order. At the Executive Committee meeting of November 3, 1950, the United States, United Kingdom and French deputy commissioners advocated the adoption of a resolution upholding “the right and duty of the federal police authorities to exercise all rights and duties vested in them” to maintain law and order. The High Commissioner reported that the coalition government was considerably bolstered by the prestige and confidence it received from its resolute handling of the communist-led disturbance of October.

Allied Commission for Austria

On January 16,1948, the United States High Commissioner for Austria (Keyes) proposed to the other members of the Allied Commission the restoration to the Austrian Government of numerous controls previously exercised by the Commission. To assist the Austrian Government in assuming such controls as soon as possible, the United States suggested that the Directorates of the Commission examine the controls within their spheres of authority and decide which might be passed to the government. Functions suggested for transfer under the United States proposal included: civil aviation; allocation of food and electric power; control of the movement and distribution of indigenous food supplies; control over travel into and out of Austria; administration of the educational system; control of the operation, arming and equipping of Austrian police and frontier control agencies; and internal and international communications. The United States also proposed a reduction of occupation costs and occupation forces and the abolition of censorship.

Political Prisoners In Austria

The Howard Journal of Criminal JusticeVolume 4, Issue 2 p. 174-178 Political Prisoners In Austria , The Author himself was confined for some time in an Austrian Police Prison in 1934.Search for more papers by this author , The Author himself was confined for some time in an Austrian Police Prison in 1934.Search for more papers by this author First published: September 1935 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.1935.tb01301.x Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume4, Issue2September 1935Pages 174-178 RelatedInformation

The Austrian Police

The Austrian Police