Innsbruck security centre begins full operations

The Tyrol Security Centre in Innsbruck officially began full operations on Tuesday, ORF reported. Its final unit, a cybercrime training centre, has now opened.

More than 900 staff and all Tyrol police organisations are based in the 56,500-square-metre complex on Kapuzinergasse. About a third of the province’s nearly 2,700 police officers are expected to work there, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said.

The complex brings together the regional police directorate, the state operations centre, the Innsbruck city police command, specialist units and offices of the Interior Ministry. These include Cobra West, a special police unit, and the bomb disposal service. A new operational training centre will also host regular police training.

Regional Police Director Helmut Tomac said the centre combines several public services in an accessible area with electronic appointment booking. It can operate autonomously for about 72 hours during a power outage, he said.

The public will be invited to an official opening and open day in spring 2027. Construction began in 2021 and involved five new buildings and the renovation of two existing ones. About 250 contractors worked on the project, 99 per cent of them from Austria, according to Christine Dornaus, head of Austrian Real Estate. The cost was about 160 million euros.

Tyrol Governor Anton Mattle said police must serve a population of about 780,000 as well as up to 350,000 additional visitors during the tourism season. He also cited transit traffic on the Brenner route and mountain accidents as challenges.

Karner also said the federal government’s 4.1 billion euro “record budget” for internal security was possible because it planned to save 250 million euros in the asylum sector over three years.