SEK Special Operations Command

Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK) are police tactical units of each of the 16 German State Police forces. Along with the Mobile Einsatzkommando (MEK), Personenschutzkommando (Bodyguards) and the Verhandlungsgruppe (Negotiation teams in some states), they are part of the police Spezialeinheiten of each state.

Mainly unrecognized by the media and public, the main missions of SEK units are to serve high-risk arrest warrants and to deal with barricaded suspects. Hostage sieges, kidnappings and raids also belong to their missions as well as other scenarios like personal security detail for VIPs or witnesses. Since the 1970s, each SEK has handled several thousand deployments. The front-runner is the SEK of the Berlin Police with up to 500 deployments a year, an average of 1.4 deployments a day.