Kaitsepolitseiamet
| Kaitsepolitsei | |
 |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1920 as the Political Police |
| Jurisdiction | Government of Estonia |
| Headquarters | Toompuiestee 3, Tallinn Coordinates: 59°25′52.1″N 24°44′16.56″E / 59.431139°N 24.7379333°E |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs |
| Website | www.kapo.ee |
The Estonian Internal Security Service (Estonian: Kaitsepolitsei, officially Estonian: Kaitsepolitseiamet, KaPo for short) is a central national security institution of Republic of Estonia. Its purposes are centered on enforcing constitutional order. The Estonian Internal Security Service has primary investigative jurisdiction in some offences committed by state officials; countering terrorism; incitement to hatred; crimes against humanity and peace, including war crimes; illegal handling and trafficking of firearms, ammunition, explosives, radioactive material or other strategic materials; and the protection of state secrets. It also fills counterintelligence duties.
The Estonian Internal Security Service is administered as an agency of the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
While a lot of Estonian Internal Security Service's activities are classified, its overview of the status of national security is published yearly as the Kaitsepolitsei aastaraamat.
Kaitsepolitseiamet was first established on April 12, 1920. From 1925 to 1940 the institution was known as Political Police (Poliitiline politsei, abbreviated PolPol). The PolPol fought against subversive activities of political extremists, espionage, desertion, smuggling and terrorism. The most discussed targets were the Estonian communists whose party had been declared an illegal organisation following the failed December coup, forcing them to operate clandestinely and through various legal fronts, usually as workers' organisations. Communists were supported by the Soviet Union, who had publicly accepted the principles not recognizing the parliamentary order, seeing terrorism as a legitimate activity. Similarly, the PolPol surveyed pro-Nazi oriented Baltic Germans and extreme monarchists of the White Russian emigres.
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