Formed Police Unit

[1] In 2007, the first all-female FPU – contributed by India – was deployed as part of the United Nations Mission in Liberia.

[6] FPUs are typically used during a mission's start-up and surge phases to signal a stronger presence than would be possible with individual police officers.

[6] To maximize operational efficiency, single FPUs are composed of police from the contributing country only, instead of from multiple states.

[6] In the latter role, armed FPUs act as an intermediate response link between individual police officers who are unarmed and armed military units; according to Kamil Kuć and Walentyna Trzcińska they "work where a show of force is needed, but where the intervention of the army would be excessive".

In the case of UN FPUs, this is generally a 300-hour course covering topics such as defense against IEDs, evacuations, convoy escort procedures, physical security, first aid, and riot control tactics.