US General Services Administration, Federal Protective Service

The Federal Protective Service (FPS) was founded in 1971 as the police division of the United States Department of General Services Administration (GSA). FPS is the federal agency charged with protecting and delivering integrated law enforcement and security services to facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA), which includes over 9,000 federal buildings and their many occupants.FPS is a federal law enforcement agency, and employs approximately 900 law enforcement officers who receive initial training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). FPS integrates law enforcement and security services at U.S. Federal buildings, courthouses, and other properties administered by cross training as Security Specialists and Investigators. To support their mission, FPS manages contracted private security firms to provide 13,000 armed security officers providing access control and security response within federal buildings. These contractors are not federal law enforcement but private security employees trained and supervised by FPS. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001; President George W. Bush and DHS Secretary Tom Ridge removed FPS from GSA and placed them under the newly-created Department of Homeland Security. Initially, FPS was formerly a part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement until October 2009, when it was transferred to the National Protection and Programs Directorate. FPS also protects other 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 Security Special Events, task forces and national disasters.