Upper Austria police chief reports 50 searches this year

Upper Austria police have carried out 50 house searches this year in cases involving Islamist terrorism and far-right extremism, state police director Andreas Pilsl told ORF Upper Austria. He said the province is home to a high two-digit number of people considered Islamist security threats and called for greater police powers.

Austria remains on its second-highest terrorism alert level. “We are highly vigilant, even if the public does not notice much of it,” Pilsl said in ORF Upper Austria’s “Auf ein Wort” interview series.

Pilsl said authorities were seeing radicalisation particularly among young people, mainly through the internet. “There is certainly a danger coming from this,” he said.

He renewed his call for additional powers beyond the ability to read chats, which is already possible under certain conditions. Organised crime and serious and gang-related crime groups know that police lose access to them as soon as they switch to a messenger service, he said.

Pilsl specifically called for the ability to record vehicle licence plates, especially when vehicles leave Austria, analyse mobile phone cell data and obtain internet connection data. He rejected data-protection concerns, saying the aim was not to monitor anyone around the clock but that these powers were essential for modern policing.

Pilsl has led Upper Austria’s police force for 20 years, longer than his counterparts in Austria’s other provinces. He said that experience made it easier for him to voice views that others might not express and that he would continue to do so.