Law enforcement in Hungary

Law enforcement in Hungary is split among the Police and Border Guards, and the Customs and Excise Authority. Since 2006, the Police has been subject to the Ministry of Justice, when the Ministry of Interior was re-structured to deal with Municipalities and Regional Development. Due to Hungary's accession to the Schengen Treaty, the Police and Border Guards were merged into a single national corps, with the Border Guards becoming Police Officers. This merger took place in January 2008. The Customs and Excise Authority remained to be subject to the Ministry of Finance.

The national police headquarters is located in Budapest, 13th District. It is nicknamed as Police Palace. In February, 2007, the headquarters was the target of small arms fire, with multiple bullet holes being found in the building, but there were no injuries.

The Hungarian Police is the main and largest governmental law enforcement agency in Hungary. It reports to the Ministry of the Interior and headed by the National Commissioner of the Police (országos rendőrfőkapitány). It carries out general policing, patrolling, traffic policing, bordeg control and criminal investigations. It is divided into twenty regional units one for the capital city Budapest and nineteen for the nineteen counties of Hungary. Among the capital and county departments there are two other units with nation-wide jurisdiction: the National Bureau of Investigation (Nemzeti Nyomozó Iroda) for fighting serious crimes, and the highly militarised Riot Police (Készenléti Rendőrség) for strengthening local police forces and perform SWAT operations.

The Counter Terrorism Centre is a special police force with nationwide jurisdiction under the direct control of the Minister of the Interior of Hungary, founded by prime minister Viktor Orbán in 2011. It mainly deals with counter-terrorist activities, the majority of the police officers serving in the body are trained as SWAT officers to fight against armed criminals. They interfere when necessary in any case if asked for by the National Police or other authorities. Besides, the Counter Terrorism Centre is also responsible for the protection of the Hungarian prime minister, Hungarian president and other high-ranking government and state officials and the security of several government building, and also serves as a secret service-like organisation collecting and analysing information about potentially dangerous groups and persons. It is often criticised by the political opposition as "the private army of the prime minister", since its first and current director, police brigadier general János Hajdú was earlier the personal bodyguard of prime minister Viktor Orbán after retiring from his police career. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the officers employed and the functions carried out by the service existed earlier mainly within the frameworks of the National Police under the name of "Terrorelhárító Szolgálat" (Counter Terrorism Service), they were only centralised into an autonomous police force under the direct control of the Ministry of the Interior, not causing essential changes in the structure and operation of Hungarian law enforcement, only the organisational frameworks changed to some extent.

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