The United States Federal Protective Service (FPS) commonly referred to as the Federal Police is a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Federal Protective Service is also the federal agency charged with protecting and delivering integrated law enforcement, investigative, and security services to federal property, critical infrastructure, federal employees, and large scale public events. This responsibility is perhaps the most public-facing role, however, it is just one of many law enforcement responsibilities entrusted to the agents of FPS.
FPS is a federal law enforcement agency which employs approximately 900 law enforcement officers who receive their initial training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). New FPS law enforcement personnel receive over 26 weeks of training at FLETC, making the FPS training program the longest program at FLETC. Following FLETC graduation, new FPS law enforcement agents go through an additional 12-week field training and evaluation program. This ensures that FPS personnel are prepared for any situation they may encounter, as most FPS Inspectors and Agents cover large geographic areas without immediate assistance.
FPS also enters in to Memorandums of Understanding with other federal, local, and state law enforcement agencies to further the agency’s mandate of promoting homeland security. Most FPS Inspectors and Agents are cross-designated to uphold state and local laws with a nexus to federal interests.
FPS provides integrated law enforcement and security services to U.S. federal buildings, courthouses, and other properties administered by the GSA and the DHS.
In support of their mission, FPS contracts with private security firms to provide a further 13,000 armed protective security officers (PSO) providing access control and security response within federal buildings. These PSOs are not federal law enforcement officers but private security employees trained by FPS. FPS also protects non-GSA properties as authorized and carries out various other activities for the promotion of homeland security as the Secretary of Homeland Security may prescribe, to include providing a uniformed police response to National Special Security Events, and national disasters.
The FPS was a part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement until October 2009, when it was transferred to the National Protection and Programs Directorate. As part of the NPPD's transformation into the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FPS was further moved to the department's Management Directorate.
Description The Federal Protective Service is a branch of the Management Directorate and a component of the DHS, functioning as the police force of the Secretary of Homeland Security.
FPS law enforcement personnel are divided into three categories: Police Officers (0083 job series), Inspectors (1801 job series), and Special Agents (1811 job series). The FPS Inspectors hold a unique federal law enforcement position and are tasked with many overlapping duties that would generally be carried out by uniformed police and investigators at other agencies. The Inspectors are uniquely qualified to perform law enforcement, physical security, threat mitigation, and investigative duties.
FPS has several Special Operations divisions which include the Weapons Of Mass Destruction Coordinators (Hazmat Technicians assigned as regional subject-matter experts), Explosive-Detection K9 Teams, the Rapid Protection Force, Bicycle Team, Covert Security Testing team, and the Threat Management Branch.
FPS officers, inspectors, and special agents respond to calls for assistance, conduct investigations and provide crime prevention tips, as well as assist in emergency planning by the departments and agencies occupying the buildings for which the agency is responsible.
All federal facilities under FPS control receive a thorough building security assessment on a recurring schedule. During this assessment representatives of all agencies in the facility are interviewed to gather information on the specific mission they perform within the facility, and intelligence and crime statistics for the area are reviewed, as are existing security countermeasures. Based on the findings and working with the agencies housed in the facility, security countermeasures are added or adjusted. This allows for tailored security for each individual facility versus a one-size-fits-all approach.
Role
Primary protective services Conducting facility security assessments Designing countermeasures for tenant agencies Maintaining uniformed law enforcement presence Maintaining armed contract security guards Performing background suitability checks for contract employees Monitoring security alarms via centralized communication centers
Additional protective services Conducting criminal investigations Sharing intelligence among local/state/federal agencies Protecting special events Working with FEMA to respond to natural disasters Offering special operations including K-9 explosive detection Training federal tenants in crime prevention and Occupant Emergency Planning
Training Newly hired sworn FPS law enforcement personnel attend a uniform police training program for 13 weeks, followed by FPS add on training for an additional 13 weeks at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center location in Glynco, Georgia. Furthermore, following graduation, new FPS law enforcement officers undergo additional post academy training, as well as career-continuous training, and are assigned to an FPS office in one of eleven regions throughout the country. FPS law enforcement officers also undergo additional training, depending on their assignment to special units within the service.
History
The origins of FPS date to 1790 (a year after the US Marshals Service), with the enactment of the Residence Act, authorizing President George Washington to appoint three commissioners to create a federal territory for a permanent seat of federal government. Prior to the formal establishment of Washington and the District of Columbia, commissioners hired six night watchmen to protect designated buildings the government was intended to occupy. FPS traces its origins to the appointment of these six night watchmen.
FPS has resided in a number of different agencies over the years. The act of June 1, 1948, authorized the federal administrator to appoint special policemen for duty in connection with the policing of all buildings owned and occupied by the United States. In 1949, Congress enacted the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, which consolidated real property functions within the newly created GSA. The FPS force, known at the time as the , came under the supervision of the Protection Division of the Public Building Service. In 1971, the Administrator of GSA signed an order formally establishing the Federal Protective Force, later known as FPS, and the Civil Service Commission authorized the special classification title of federal protective officer.
Initially, the main function of FPS was protection, as an integral part of building operations. For the most part, the force held fixed posts and performed duties that would be considered safety functions today, such as: eliminating fire and safety hazards, patrolling buildings, detecting fires, and providing the first line of defense in fighting fires; and answering visitor questions, assisting citizens, rendering first aid, and directing traffic when necessary. By 1960, the mission of FPS had become the first line of defense against bomb threats, bombings, vandalism, mass demonstrations, and violence against Federal buildings.
In 1980, Fidel Castro instigated a wave of emigration from Cuba to the United States using the harbor town of Mariel for debarkation. The thousands of refugees were eventually distributed to military installations in several states (Fort Chaffee, AR, Fort McCoy, WI, Fort Indiantown Gap, PA) and Puerto Rico to await permanent resettlement. The Immigration and Naturalization Service and Border Patrol were understaffed to provide civilian law enforcement officers needed to maintain order within the installations. The Federal Protective Service, then administratively placed under the General Service Administration's Public Building Service, was among several federal authorities asked to provide additional on-site officers for the duration of the event. Federal Protective Officers from across the country frequently served in the camps, and also during the riot at Fort Chaffee.
More recently, the role of the FPS officer has undergone further changes. The FPS has shifted its emphasis from the fixed guard post concept of security to a mobile police patrol and response. FPS contracts private security companies to guard fixed posts. FPS officers perform all duties attendant to the normal interpretation of a police officer function including maintaining law and order, preventing or deterring disturbances, and investigating both felonies and misdemeanors. The Civil Service Commission developed standards for FPS applicants, which included background investigations, and physical examinations.
Officers of the Federal Protective Service arrested civil rights movement historian Randy Kryn and 10 others who were protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
21st century Pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, FPS was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security and retained its responsibilities for protecting the buildings, grounds, and property owned, occupied, or secured by the federal government under GSA's jurisdiction. In addition to GSA facilities, the Act also provides FPS with the authority to protect properties held by DHS components that were not under GSA jurisdiction. FPS was moved from GSA, Public Building Services, to DHS, effective March 1, 2003. Within DHS, FPS became a part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed legislation that transferred FPS from ICE to the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Today, FPS is responsible for policing, securing, and ensuring a safe environment in which federal agencies can conduct business by reducing threats posed against approximately 9,000 federal government facilities throughout the United States.Cost and duration of FPS transition were underestimated . FierceHomelandSecurity (2011-08-16). Retrieved on 2013-07-23.
On December 26, 2007, President George W. Bush signed H.R. 2764 Omnibus spending bill into law which included a provision that FPS maintains, by July 31, 2008, not fewer than 1,200 full-time staff and 900 full-time Police Officers, Inspectors, and Special Agents who, while working, are directly engaged on a daily basis protecting and enforcing laws at Federal buildings. This amendment to H.R. 2674 was introduced by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and was successfully included in the bill and signed into law largely due to the efforts of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 918-FPS and the grassroots efforts of its membership.