The National Police Intervention Force (FIPN) () is an operational structure that coordinates various

police tactical unit A police tactical unit (PTU) is a specialized police unit trained and equipped to handle situations that are beyond the capabilities of ordinary law enforcement units because of the level of violence (or risk of violence) involved. The tasks of a ...

s of the French National Police. When activated, it is composed of

RAID RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

and its seven regional branches, BRI-BAC, the Anticommando brigade of the Paris

Research and Intervention Brigade A Search and Intervention Brigade ( (BRI) (), Investigation and Intervention Brigade or Anti-Gang Brigade) is a unit of the French National Police. The first units were formed in 1964 and carried out their tasks under the command of the Paris ...

and the three GIPN units based overseas. The RAID commander assumes operational command of FIPN upon activation.

History

In 2004, French

commissary A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

Christian Lambert put forward a project to create a unified command structure for the various anti-terrorist intervention groups in existence in the French National Police. The project was not immediately implemented, but the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also referred to as 26/11 attacks, were a series of coordinated Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist o ...

, providing an example of the sort of incident the project was designed to thwart, gave an impetus for the founding of the structure.La Force d'Intervention de la Police Nationale – FIPN
fipn-sdlp.fr From 2008, RAID, the Paris BRI-BAC and the various regional units then-known as GIPNs started a training program to adopt common methods. The FIPN was then founded on 1 December 2009 when

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Brice Hortefeux Brice Hortefeux (; born 11 May 1958) is a conservative French politician. He was Minister of the Interior, Overseas Territories and Territorial collectivities. He was previously Minister for Labour, Labour Relations, the Family, Solidarity and ...

visited the RAID home base at Bièvres.FIPN – Force d'Intervention de la Police Nationale
le.raid.free.fr In 2010, the BRIs joined the structure. The organisation of the FIPN was officially determined by the ministerial decision ("''arrêté''" of 5 January 2011, notably giving the GIPNs a nationwide jurisdiction. In March 2015, the seven metropolitan GIPN units have become RAID regional branches (). Jean-Marc Tanguy ''Le RAID - 30 ans d'intervention'', Editions Pierre de Taillac, Paris - 2015 The FIPN is designed to intervene on hostage crisis and in close quarters. Its assault teams include physicians, providing for the immediate care of wounded personnel or suspects on the field.

Sources and references

{{Law enforcement agencies of France National Police (France) Non-military counterterrorist organizations 2011 establishments in France