page_title: Croatian Special Police order of battle in 1991–95
section_title: Regionally organised units
hierarchical_section_title: Croatian Special Police order of battle in 1991–95 / Fielded units / Regionally organised units
caption_attribution_description: Hrvatski: Dvadeseta obljetnica redarstvene postrojbe Alfa
context_page_description: The order of battle of the Croatian Special Police in 1991–95 included up to 30 individual special forces units subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior. The special police was created around the Ministry of the Interior's existing airborne special forces unit following an open revolt of the Croatian Serbs against the Government of Croatia in August 1990. It further developed with the increasing involvement of the Yugoslav People's Army in the conflict, supporting the Croatian Serbs. The conflict escalated into the Croatian War of Independence in 1991. The special police took part in the first clashes of the war in Pakrac and at the Plitvice Lakes. As Croatia had no army, the 3,000-strong special forces became the country's most effective fighting force.
  Even though several special police units were transformed into the Croatian National Guard in 1991, the special police continued to operate throughout the war as special forces units supporting virtually all army operations. The last large deployment of the special police in the war occurred in Operation Storm in August 1995, when the force contributed 3,100 troops to the offensive.
context_section_description: In November 1991, the Ministry of the Interior redefined the organisation of the special police force, retaining a few units under direct control of the ministry and assigning others to county police administrations. The move was devised in response to the advance of the JNA. The scheme included the establishment of an SPU in each of the 20 county police administrations. At the time, there were up to 19 such SPUs. Under the scheme, the Karlovac, Gospić, Osijek, Slavonski Brod and Zagreb SPUs were planned to have 180 troops each. The Rijeka, Sisak, Bjelovar and Šibenik SPUs were scheduled to comprise 150 troops each, while the Split, Zadar, Kutina, Vinkovci, Županja and Vukovar SPUs were planned as 120-strong units. The smallest, 100-strong units were to be based in Pula, Varaždin, Zabok and Dubrovnik. Overall, the scheme called for 2,620 active special police troops in the regionally organised units alone, and defined that each of the units should have a matching number of reserve troops.
  No additional SPUs were set up in 1992, regardless of discrepancies between the November 1991 reorganisation scheme and the actual order of battle of the special police. Two additional SPUs were set up and assigned to the Koprivnica-Križevci and Požega-Slavonia police administrations in 1993. Following a reorganisation of the force carried out in 2001, the regionally based units were amalgamated into four units—Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Osijek. At the same time, the special police was reduced to 300 personnel.
caption: Special police Alfa Unit 20th anniversary celebration
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