Austria license plate: Police

Format, years and the law

Format

BP-999999, for example BP-695779 (9 any digit)

BP is the Bundespolizei, ahead of a digits-only official serial. Just don't run the logic backwards: the law lets security services register unmarked cars under cover plates, so the absence of BP proves nothing about the car behind you.

BP

Bundespolizei (federal police)

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued

2002 to today. Still issued.

Vehicle class

Police: police fleets where distinct from government. Issued for car, van, truck, bus, and motorcycle.

Colours

Characters #000000 Background #FFFFFF

Size

520 × 120 mm · every country's size

About this plate

BUNDESPOLIZEI. The one thing this series cannot tell you: § 48 Abs. 1 lets security fleets carry several Deckkennzeichen, so an unmarked police car deliberately does not read as BP. It was the BUNDESGENDARMERIE code BG, repealed as the tidy-up of the 1 July 2005 merger of the Gendarmerie into the Bundespolizei, which is why lit. a's BP survives and lit. b does not. The repeal citations themselves are confirmed verbatim (BGBl. II Nr. 275/2007 Z 19, "§ 26 Abs. 4 lit. b entfällt."; BGBl. II Nr. 376/2002 Z 8, "§ 26 Abs. 4 lit. d entfällt."). A BG plate is a real string a parse API will meet: the Gendarmerie ran a national fleet under this KDV for thirty-seven years.

Legal basis and sources

1. § 26 Abs. 4 lit. a: 'für Fahrzeuge, die zur Verwendung im Bereich der Bundespolizei bestimmt sind, BP'; Abs. 6 Z 1 lit. a. https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/NormDokument.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10011385&Paragraf=26
2. § 48 Abs. 1 Z 2 and Abs. 1a: security-service vehicles may additionally hold one or more DECKKENNZEICHEN, which look like ordinary plates. https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/NormDokument.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10011384&Paragraf=48