Bundeskriminalamt

The Bundeskriminalamt, commonly abbreviated BKA, is Germany's federal criminal police office, established in 1951 and headquartered in Wiesbaden under the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It investigates crime that falls outside the authority of Germany's individual state police forces, including international organized crime, terrorism and other offenses of national significance, and it coordinates cooperation between the federal government and the sixteen state police forces rather than functioning as a general national police with broad standing jurisdiction. The agency's deliberately limited and specifically enumerated legal authority reflects a postwar German decision to avoid recreating the kind of centralized federal police power the Gestapo had exercised under the Nazi regime, so the BKA takes on a case only where its jurisdiction is expressly granted by statute or specifically requested by state authorities or the federal government. Beyond investigation, the BKA also provides forensic science services, protects senior constitutional officials, and serves as Germany's national contact point for Interpol and Europol.