Hungary

The Hungarian National Police are an armed law enforcement agency of the state. The government directs the Police through the Minister responsible for law enforcement. The organisation is comprised of a central unit, the county (metropolitan) police headquarters, police stations and border policing stations. The National Police organise their tasks through service branches (e.g. the criminal investigation branch), services (e.g. the anti-terror service) and special services (e.g. the economic service).

The activities of the 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.

The Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard was founded in 1867.  Its main task is to protect public safety and the economy by performing the following activities:

• controlling the production and trade of export goods;
• confiscating illegal products;
• checking tax stamps and tax seals;
• controlling the trade in precious metal objects;
• securing energy supplies by controlling energy tax combating trade in drugs and psychotropic substances;
• preventing the production and trade of fake and counterfeit products;
• exposing money laundering and violations of financial law;
• controlling trade in military products and products with dual civil military use;
• controlling the transportation of endangered animal and plant species;
• controlling the transportation of dangerous goods;
• controlling the cross-border movement of pets;
• controlling the export and import of cultural goods;
• checking the driving hours of the crews of vehicles circulating in international traffic;
• checking payment of the environmental protection fee;
• protecting the EU economy by cooperating with the OLAF, Europol and SECI, and through contact with Customs attachés.