Police and Border Guard Board

The Police and Border Guard Board (Estonian: Politsei- ja Piirivalveamet) is a unified national governmental agency within the Estonian Ministry of Interior and is responsible for law enforcement and internal security in the Republic of Estonia.

The main tasks of the agency are to ensure and protect the integrity of the Estonian state and, since May 1, 2004, also the European Union border within the territories of the Republic of Estonia; to secure the state borders and the European Union outer border within the territories of the Republic of Estonia, to monitor and identify citizenship, along with handling the documentation, to preserve law and civil order within the borders of the Republic of Estonia and to detect and prevent crime.

Andrus Ansip's Government Cabinet which was established after the 2005 parliamentary elections, stated in its 2007–2011 coalition programme the need for a unified homeland security agency in order to reduce operating costs and upkeep between the ministry and its organizations. On April 13, 2007, the Ministry of the Interior established a working group in order commence research about possible unification of the Estonian Police and Estonian Border Guard agencies.

The final study presented by the working group proposed to unite three main law enforcement organizations, including the Police, Border Guard, and the Citizenship and Migration Board into a single structure capable of carrying out all the tasks. In October 2007, the Ministry of the Interior created another working group with an operational task to start the unification process. On August 31, 2008, the Cabinet approved the creation of a new government organization within the Ministry of the Interior with the unification of these three agencies.

On May 6, 2009, the Estonian Parliament recognized the agency unification idea with the adoption of the Police and Border Guard Board Law, and changes into other laws regarding the area of competency of the Ministry. In June, the Cabinet appointed Raivo Küüt to be the first director-general of the organization. On January 1, 2010, the Police and Border Guard Board officially started work.

The agency is headed by a director general, who has four deputies. The deputies lead various departments. In addition, prefectures are led by prefects. The Police and Border Guard consists of the Development Department, Border Guard Department, Central Criminal Police, Northern Prefecture, Eastern Prefecture, Southern Prefecture, Western Prefecture, Administration, Internal Affairs Office, and Internal Audit Office. The Border Guard Department also manages the Police and Border Guard Aviation Group and the naval fleet.

The organization has more than 7,000 servicemen, of which 6,000 are in active duty, and another 1,000 in the administrative area.

The head of the Police Board is the Director General of Police (peadirektor). The head of the regional district is the Police Commissioner (prefekt^{[broken anchor]}). With the unification of the Police and Border Guard Boards several new service ranks were created which now also includes the ranks of general and an inspector general.