Federal Protective Service is a title used in a number of countries, see FPS (disambiguation)

The Federal Protective Service or FPS, is a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is responsible for the security of over 8.800 Federal buildings, facilities, properties and other federal assets. The FPS is primarily a uniformed force of 2000 police officers which provides security police services to US Federal Buildings and other properties administered by the US General Services Administration (GSA). It also protects other properties as authorized. Its personnel have full police powers on Federal property. It also maintains a small force of plainclothes detectives called Special Agents to investigate crimes occurring on federal properties and conducts counter-intelligence investigations as needed. One of the FPS's tasks is the supervision of the approximately 10,000 contract security guards assigned to protect Federal buildings. It also conducts background checks on contract workers in federal buildings.

The FPS was established by act of Congress on 11 January 1971 as part of the Public Buildings Service of the General Services Administration. It traces it history to six watchmen hired by Congress in 1790 to protect the buildings and properties of the seat of government, to include those of the President, the Congress and other public offices. In accordance with the Homeland Security Act of 2002, in 2003 the FPS became part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau of the US Department of Homeland Security and its head was retitled from Assistant Commissioner to Director. The Director also serves as the chairman of the Federal Interagency Security Committee which is concerned with the physical security of all federal facilities.

External links

• Federal Protective Service