Planning, Organization and Special Units

In addition to planning operations and managing spontaneous incidents, we also carry out effective assessments of all our operations. This allows us to provide substantial benefits to operations leaders and frontline forces.

About us

The Planning, Operations and Special Units Department is responsible for a variety of tasks. It specializes in covert investigations and special investigative services. The department also includes intervention and operations specialists who provide practical training, support spontaneous and planned operations, and conceptualize special operations and security services. The leadership support service assists with operational planning and management.

The Operations Control Center joined this department from April 1, 2024. Employees of the center first coordinate the required resources and transfer operational control to the frontline when a patrol arrives at the incident site. The control center continues to support the operations until they are complete.

The department also includes the special units, some of which are semi-professional, while most are organized according to the militia system. These include the Lynx intervention unit, dog handlers, negotiators, drone pilots, and flying operations leaders.

Peter Niederberger, Head of Planning, Organization and Special Units

‘We assess all the planned and spontaneous operations. As a learning organization, we discuss operational challenges and identify lessons learned to prevent future problems. These assessments reveal new insights that we integrate into our situation planning and evaluation.’

Services of the Planning, Operations, and Special Units Department

Special units

Most of our special units are organized according to the militia system, while some are semi-professional. This means that members have regular duties and are called up for deployments and training. They operate independently but also collaborate as a group. The special units include the following divisions: