Switzerland: New Federal police agencies
01 May 1999
On 31 May the government established a new federal police organisation which will come into operation in September. The Federal police (Bupo) will be transferred from the Federal Prosecutor's Office to the Federal Office of Police Matters (BAP). The decision is another move in the reorganisation and modernisation process which began in 1989 following the report of a parliamentary commission into the activities of the political police (see files scandal, Statewatch vol 2 no 6 & vol 6 no 4).
In 1989 the Federal Prosecutor's Office included two police agencies:
1. the Federal police was the most important police agency with 96 officers. As a cold war organisation it was, and remains, responsible for judicial police investigations into cases of federal competence (high treason, weapons and explosives etc) and for unauthorised "preventative" political police operations. As the parliamentary commission revealed, the Bupo held records on 900,000 people and organisations considered to be "subversive". These records contained political beliefs rather than evidence of any criminal wrongdoing or offences. In 1989 the Bupo had no legal basis for preventative activities, although they were made retrospectively legal by the State Security law (1997). This law also legitimised the State Security Information System (ISIS), introduced in 1992, which permanently holds data on about 50,000 people.
2. the Central police services (ZSD), comprised a drugs service, a department to counter counterfeiting, and a unit investigating white slavery and pornography. The ZSD, which in 1989 had a total of 11 officers, was at that time of no great significance.
3. Also of relatively little importance was the Federal Office of Police Matters (BAP) which had an identification unit (fingerprints), coordinated the search for wanted persons and was responsible for questions of mutual assistance in criminal matters.
Until now the Bupo remained under the authority of the Federal Prosecutors office, whereas the ZSD was transferred to the BAP in 1992 and rapidly grew in size. In 1994 they acquired a new legal basis. A Central Service to combat organised crime was founded and special computer systems were set up. By the end of 1999, the ZSD will have a personnel of 107 officers and further expansion is expected to raise their numbers to 250 by the year 2003. The BAP comprises about 350 officers at the present time (including 107 from the Central Services). With the inclusion of the Bupo officers it will increase by 100 to about 450 - by Swiss standards - an enormous agency.
However, the problems which gave rise to the files scandal remain unresolved. The new office will have the powers of the judicial police and of a preemptive intelligence service - both for political and criminal police matters. Instead of a division of powers, information from cantonal police and from foreign police and intelligence services will now flow to a single service.
The transfer of Bupo will not mean a loss of power for the Federal Prosecutor's Office. The federal prosecutor, Mrs Carla del Ponte, will have access to all computer systems and may use the central services as well as the Bupo for operations. The federal prosecutor's powers will also be enlarged. According to a bill, which is now under parliamentary debate, she will gain competence for "important" and "complex" cases of "organised" and economic crime. A separation of investigative powers and functions of prosecution before the federal and cantonal courts, which was recommended by the parliamentary commission in 1989, seems to be off the agenda.