The Directorate of special units is the police tactical unit of the Belgian Federal Police. In total, DSU consists of about 500 highly trained police officers. The centralized 50 operator small assault team of the intervention unit of the DSU is deployed in cases of terrorism, kidnappings, hostage taking and other forms of serious crime. DSU performs emergency responses, high-risk arrests and searches, observation operations, undercover operations and more. Chief commissioner Eric Liévin, one of the DSU's former commanders, states that "a criminal dealing with the DSU, has a better chance of surviving than another; they try to use a minimal level of violence/force, and yet try to attain a maximum level of efficiency."
History
The original DSU was created within the former Rijkswacht/Gendarmerie in 1972 in the aftermath of the Munich massacre and was called Group Diane. In 1974 the name was changed from Diane to SIE or ESI. In 2001, all Belgian police forces were reformed into the integrated police structured on two levels, the local police and the federal police. The SIE/ESI took the form of the Directorate of special units, which was part of the newly created federal police. In 2007 the DSU was integrated into the Office of the General Commissioner and its name was changed to CGSU. Due to an optimization reform within the federal police that started in 2014, the special units were moved from the Office of the General Commissioner to the General directorate of the judicial police, one of the three general directorates resorting under the Office of the General Commissioner. This was deemed more logical because of the operational and judicial nature of the assignments of the federal police's special units. Subsequently, the name and abbreviation was changed to "Directorate of the special units ". The DSU was deployed to hunt down suspects responsible for bombing the Brussels metro and airport with one suspect apprehended. Its manpower in 2012, consist of 450 police officers and 62 civilians.
Organisation
The DSU is one of the four central directorates of the General directorate of the judicial police, which is responsible for criminal investigations and anti-crime operations. The DSU consists of centralised units and decentralised units. The centralised units are called the "special units" and consist of:
These are all stationed in a police caserne in Etterbeek. There are four decentralised units, called "Protection, observation, support & arrest platoons", spread over the country:
