Police use mobile fingerprint scans in Salzburg station checks

Police used mobile fingerprint scanners during checks at Salzburg’s main railway station on Tuesday, allowing officers to verify identities within minutes. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and Salzburg Governor Karoline Edtstadler, both of the ÖVP, observed the operation, ORF reported.

About 30 officers from the police, customs and financial police took part, in uniform and plain clothes. They checked people in and around the station, including their right to stay in the state and for possible security or criminal-police concerns.

Operation leader Roland Langer said officers were focusing on passenger and through-traffic, while also conducting broader security and criminal checks.

Mobile fingerprint scanning has been available to police across Austria since mid-October. The Interior Ministry said the technology was developed jointly by the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Austrian Institute of Technology. It is installed on 32,500 police mobile phones, and can be used by all 2,096 police officers in Salzburg.

Karner said about 600 officers in Vienna, Lower Austria and Styria had tested the system for roughly a year. The scanners can often spare people the trip to a police station for a fingerprint check. Edtstadler said they could help officers identify wanted people and repeat offenders more quickly.

The Interior Ministry and the state government described the station district as a continuing focus for police work. Karner cited efforts to combat illegal migration and people-smuggling, saying targeted immigration checks at major transport hubs were part of that strategy.

Salzburg FPÖ city councillor Paul Dürnberger criticised the operation as a one-off, high-profile action and called for a permanent, visible presence of law enforcement in the station district. Edtstadler rejected the suggestion that the city was unsafe, saying she felt very safe in Salzburg while travelling by public transport. She and Karner said the station forecourt would remain under close watch, with more checks by the city’s public order office also planned.

The state expects the new state service centre being built beside the station forecourt to bring further changes.