Specialist Protective Services
| Specialist Protective Services | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1 July 2012 – present |
| Country | Australia |
| Agency | Australian Federal Police |
| Role | |
| Operations jurisdiction |
|
| Headquarters | Canberra |
| Abbreviation | SPS |
| Structure | |
| Sworn members | Approx. 200 |
| Notables | |
| Significant operation(s) | |
The Specialist Protective Services (SPS) (formerly Specialist Response Group (SRG)) is a highly trained police unit of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) consisting of a range of teams capable of deploying at short notice in order to undertake a variety of specialist policing tasks. SPS predominantly consist of sworn police officers, based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), who are capable of resolving high risk planned and emergency policing operations; both domestically and internationally.
The SPS is a police tactical group as defined under the Australian and New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee (ANZCTC) arrangements. SPS commenced operations in July 2012 under the name Specialist Response Group as a result of the merging of the Specialist Response and Security Team (SRS) (from ACT Policing) and the Operational Response Group (ORG) from AFP's International Deployment Group. The SRG became the largest centralised specialist policing capability in Australia, with almost 200 personnel.
In 2020, the AFP conducted a review of their organisational structure and operating model and subsequently established the Specialist Protection Command on 1 July 2020. The AFP reported in a 2019-20 annual report that the SRG had been renamed as Specialist Protective Services.