Federal Police (Belgium)

The Federal Police (Dutch: Federale Politie; French: Police Fédérale) carries out specialized and supra-local administrative and judicial police operations, and supports both local and federal police services and units. The Federal Police has approximately 12,300 officers and civilian personnel.

The Federal Police is commanded by General Commissioner (CG) Catherine De Bolle, who holds the rank of chief commissioner. She is in charge of the General Commissioner's Office on which three general directorates depend: the General directorate of the administrative police (DGA), the General directorate of the judicial police (DGJ) and the General directorate of resources and information (DGR). Each general directorate is led by a general director (DG), also holding the rank of chief commissioner.

General Commissioner's Office (CG)

The General Commissioner 's Office (Dutch: Commissariaat-Generaal; French: Commissariat-Général; German: Generalkommissariat ) incorporates all the top-level central services of the Federal Police. It is commanded by the General Commissioner who directs and manages the Federal Police and ensures regular contact with the Local Police. The Office is responsible for integrated police operations, coordination, cooperation with local police and foreign police, intelligence gathering and management, dispatching and external communication.

Law enforcement agency

A law enforcement agency (LEA), in North American English, is a government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.

Outside North America, such organizations are usually called police services. In North America, some of these services are called police, others are known as sheriff's offices/departments, while investigative police services in the United States are often called bureaus, for example the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Jurisdiction

LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction.

LEAs will have some form of geographic restriction on their ability to apply their powers. The LEA might be able to apply its powers within a country, for example the United States of America's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, within a division of a country, for example the Australian state Queensland Police, or across a collection of countries, for example international organizations such as Interpol, or the European Union's Europol.

Federal Police (Austria)

The Federal Police (German: Bundespolizei) is the law enforcement agency of Austria. The Austrian Federal Police were formed in July 2005 as one formal unit of police. Before 2005 the police system operated the Gendarmerie for most of the country, and the Polizei in the heavy city and urban areas such as Vienna, Salzburg and Graz. In 2004 it was agreed by the Government of Austria that these two police forces, along with the criminal investigation service, the public security constabulary, and the security authorities, would all form together to become the 'Federal Police of Austria'. The Federal Police is also responsible for border control.

Command

The current command structure that the Bundespolizei operates is very simple. The Federal Police is commanded by Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry then delegates to the 9 State Police commands. Depending on the State command, the districts and cities are controlled by either a District Police Command or a City Police Command. These commands then operate through police stations throughout the Province.

Argentine Federal Police

The Argentine Federal Police (Spanish: Policía Federal Argentina or PFA) is a civil police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country, but its main responsibility is policing the Federal District of Buenos Aires. Argentine Federal Police duties in Buenos Aires have been gradually taken over by a new force, the Policía Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police).

History

The history of this police force can be traced to 1580, when the founder of Buenos Aires, Captain Juan de Garay, established a local militia for defense against potential Native American raids. The Policía de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Police) operated for the first three hundred years up to 1880, when the Federalization of Buenos Aires resulted in the creation of the Policía de la Capital (Police of the Capital).

Incidents of social unrest in subsequent years helped prompt the Fraga Law in 1904, which provided for the inclusion of neighborhood representatives as commissioners in their respective precincts. The failed Revolution of 1905, by which the UCR sought to bring about reforms to the undemocratic electoral system, led to the appointment of a conservative congressman, retired Col. Ramón Falcón, to the post of chief of police; Falcón's repressive tenure ended with his 1909 assassination.

Belgium

Coordinates: 50°50′N 4°00′E / 50.833°N 4.000°E / 50.833; 4.000

Belgium (ⁱ/ˈbɛldʒəm/; Dutch: België  [ˈbɛlɣijə]; French: Belgique  [bɛlʒik]; German: Belgien  [ˈbɛlɡiən]), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts several of the EU's official seats and as well as the headquarters of many major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of about 11 million people.

Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups: the Dutch-speaking, mostly Flemish community, which constitutes about 59% of the population, and the French-speaking, mostly Walloon population, which comprises 41% of all Belgians. Additionally, there is a small group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area, and bordering Germany.

Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. Its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of government.

History of Belgium

The history of Belgium stretches back before the origin of the modern state of that name in 1830. Belgium's history is intertwined with those of its neighbours: the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg. For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either a part of a larger territory, such as the Carolingian Empire, or divided into a number of smaller states, prominent among them being the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and Luxembourg. Due to its strategic location and the many armies fighting on its soil, Belgium since the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) has often been called the "battlefield of Europe" or the "cockpit of Europe." It is also remarkable as a European nation which contains, and is divided by, a language boundary between Latin-derived French, and Germanic Dutch.

Belgian wine

Belgian wine is produced in several parts of Belgium and production, although still modest at 1,400 hectoliters in 2004, has expanded in recent decades.

History

Belgian wine first appeared in the Middle Ages, around the 9th century. It is unlikely that wine was made in the area now known as Belgium before that, since the climate was not suitable and Gaul was covered with thick forests. However, there are mentions of Paris vineyards in the 4th century. From that time, vine cultivation spread northward and in the 8th century the banks of the Rhine were covered with vineyards. The first attempts at viniculture in Belgium were made around the same time. Moreover, the vineyards were already well established in Amay. The vineyard at Vivegnis, in the north of the province of Liège, was already considered old in the 9th century, as well as the vineyard at Huy, which belonged in part to the Bishop of Liège. The edges of the Meuse River were intensively cultivated because they offered well-exposed hillsides.