The Facilities Protection Service is an Iraqi security agency force tasked with the fixed site protection of Iraqi Government buildings, facilities, and personnel. The FPS includes Oil, Electricity Police and Port Security. It works for all Iraqi government ministries and governmental agencies, but its standards are set and enforced by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. It can also be hired to protect private property. As of 2005, the Coalition no longer provides material or logistical support to the FPS.Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, November 2006
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Organization

The FPS consists of more than 150,000 Facility Protection Service personnel and over 26,000 contract security guards who work for 26 ministries, eight independent directorates and the Central Bank of Iraq. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some of them are unreliable and responsible for violent crimes. Iraqi Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki (; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is an Iraqi politician and leader of the Islamic Dawa Party since 2007. He served as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and as Vice President ...

has announced a reform to consolidate all Facilities Protection Service personnel into a unified organization responsible to the Ministry of Interior. These act in two capacities: as

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, factory guard, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) ...

s at government buildings and as Personal Security Details to protect important government officials. This number includes approximately 2,200 Diplomatic Protection Service (DPS) guards charged with protecting foreign embassies in Iraq. There are an estimated 17,800 FPS personnel who working for the MOI. Half of them work in Baghdad. The MOI's FPS has established better regulation, training, and discipline than have FPS staff in other ministries, and a higher proportion of them, possibly half, have completed the Facility Protection Service basic training course. The majority of the FPS staff consists of former Iraqi military personnel and former security guards. The FPS will now secure public facilities such as hospitals, banks, and power stations within their district. Once trained, the guards work with

US military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

and coalition forces protecting critical sites like schools, hospitals and power plants. Being part of the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ( ' ), also known simply as Bath Party (), was a political party founded in Syria by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, and associates of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party espoused Ba'athism, which is an ideology ...

is not disqualifier on joining the Facility Protection Service or working elsewhere with coalition forces. The FPS are paid on either on a contract basis or according to a civil pay scale which is lower than that of the Police or the New Iraqi Army. The starting salary of an FPS guard is 83,000ID ($56) per month and FPS guards receive an additional 96,000ID ($64) per month in hazardous duty pay.

Reorganization

The Iraqi government has created a national headquarters for the FPS, began to codify the relationships among the different ministries' FPS forces, and standardized the uniforms and vehicle markings, recruiting, training, terms and conditions of service, and responsibilities. Eight reviewing committees were established to assess the current status of the organization and to make recommendations for future change.

Uniforms and equipment

FPS uniforms consists of light grey shirts with dark blue pants, a leather belt, and a grey beret. They wear brassards which bear the letters 'FPS' under the Iraqi flag. They are armed with

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kala ...

's, PKMs,

Glock 19 Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer G ...

pistols, individual body armor, high-frequency radios, small and medium pick-up trucks, and mid-sized SUVs. The FPS' vehicles are provided by the various government agencies or private organizations.

Issues

Allegations were made by Ellen Knickmeyer of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' on Saturday, October 14, 2006; that the FPS was behind

Death Squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in w ...

operating in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, he also has repeatedly suggested that killings by gunmen in police uniforms were being carried out by impostors to discredit the government.

References

CPAORD_27_Establishment_of_the_Facilities_Protection_Svc

External links

* Deflem, Mathieu, and Suzanne Sutphin. 2006

Sociological Focus 39(4)265-283.
Iraqi police deaths 'hit 12,000'
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080514025618/http://www.usip.org/pubs/usipeace_briefings/2007/0207_iraqi_interior_ministry.html IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORTbr>FPS at Brussels Tribunal
{{Asia topic, Military of, title=Militaries of Asia Law enforcement in Iraq