Myanmar Police Force

The Myanmar Police Force (မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့) is the law enforcement agency of Myanmar. Formally known as the People's Police Force (ပြည်သူ့ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့), it was established in 1964 as an independent department under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was reorganised on 1 October 1995 and informally became part of the Tatmadaw (Armed Forces of Myanmar).

Myanmar Police Force
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့
Official emblem
Flag of the MPF

Coat of arms
Agency overview
Formed1964 (1964)
Superseding agency
TypeLaw enforcement
JurisdictionMyanmar
HeadquartersNaypyidaw
Employees93,000
Minister responsible
Agency executive
  • Than Hlaing, Chief of Police[1]
Parent agencyMinistry of Home Affairs
Child agencies
  • State and Division Police
  • Special Forces
  • Training Department
  • Reserve Units
  • Combat Police Battalions
  • Anti-Narcotics Task Force
WebsiteOfficial website

History

The Police Force in Myanmar have an extensive history; the police force also includes local police and regional police in different jurisdictions.

British rule in Myanmar

The Indian Imperial Police was the primary law enforcement in Burma until 1937, when it was split from British India.

In 1872 the third mayor of Mergui District, Sir Ashly Din (1870-1875) assigned the first police officer to be stationed at Maliwan, a village 24 miles north of current Victoria Point.

Perhaps the most famous policeman in Burma from this period is the author George Orwell, who in 1922 joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.

Post-independence (1948–present)

Myanmar police officers blocking protesters in Bahan Township, Yangon.

On 16 March 1988 following the killing of two students during the pro-democracy demonstrations, students marching on Prome Road were confronted near Inya Lake by the Lon Htein security force riot police and many beaten to death or drowned.

The national police are made up of several smaller entities, including

  • Myanmar Railways Police
  • Intelligence division

Organisation

The current Director General of Myanmar Police Force is Police Lieutenant General Aung Win Oo with its headquarters at Nay Pyi Daw. Its command structure is based on established civil jurisdictions. Under the command of Police Headquarter, State and Region Police force have been established in respective territories of states and divisions with headquarters in their capital cities.[2]

State and Division Police Forces

There are 14 State and Divisional Police Forces and three additional State/Division Police Forces commanded by Police Brigadiers or Colonels. Their jurisdictions are divided according to the Civil Administration. The States and Divisions, Additional States have the same status.

Each State and Divisional Police Force consist of four components.

  • Office of the Commander of the State and Divisional Police Force
  • Office of the Commander of the District Police Force
  • Office of the Commander of the Township Police Force
  • Police Stations

In previous time, the District Police Forces are classified into two classes depending on the area, population and development, namely A and B Class. Commanders of the A Class District Police Forces are Police Lieutenant Colonels and B Classes are Police Majors but there is no classification and all districts assigned with Lieutenant Colonel. Commanders of Township Police Forces are Police Majors and Police Station Officers are Police Captains.

Special Departments

There are four Special Departments, in which the first ten Departments are headed by the Police Brigadier Generals and the remaining two are by Police Colonels.

  • Security Police Force
  • Border Guard Police Force
  • Special Intelligence Department (Special Branch)
  • Criminal Investigation Department (CID)
  • Railways Police Department
  • Anti-human Trafficking Police Force
  • Maritime Police force
  • Aviation Police Force
  • Drug Enforcement Division
  • Financial Investigation force
  • Myanmar Traffic Police
  • Tourist Security Police Force
  • Oil Field Security Police Force
  • Forestry Security Police Force
  • Highway Police Force
  • Municipal Police Department

Training Centres

There are three main Training Centers, one Central Training Institute of Myanmar Police Force and Three Police Training Depots. The State and Divisional Police Forces have their own training centres for refresher courses and Junior Leader (NCO) Courses.

Bachelor's degree holders from Distance Learning University were disqualified from sitting the SIP exam. Thus vast numbers of Bachelor holding police personal were concerned for their future.

Course Name Duration
Deputy Superintendent Cadet Course 50 weeks
Sub-Inspector Cadet Course 6 weeks
Surveillance Officer Course 6 weeks
Investigation Officer Course 6 weeks
Police Station Officer Course 8 weeks
Staff Officer Course 6 weeks
Township Police Commander Course 8 weeks
District Police Commander Course 12 weeks

No. 1 Police Training Depot

The No.1 Police Training Depot is commanded by a Police Lieutenant Colonel and undertakes:

Course Name Duration
Basic Training Course for Lance Corporal and Corporal 4 weeks
Warrant Officer and Police Sergeants Course 12 Weeks
Basic Training Course for Constables 24 weeks
Clerical Training 4 weeks
Instructor Renewal Course 4 weeks

No. 2 Police Training Depot

The No.2 Police Training Depot is also commanded by a Police Lieutenant Colonel, and undertakes only Basic Training Course for Constables, which normally takes around 6 months to complete.

Course Name Duration
Basic Training Course for Constables 6 Months

Taung Lay Lone Police Training Depot

The Taung Lay Lone Police Training Depot is commanded by a Police Lieutenant Colonel and undertakes:

Course Name Duration
Basic Training Course for lance corporal and Corporal 4 weeks
Warrant Officer and Police Sergeants Course 12 Weeks
Basic Training Course for Constables 6 Months

Combat Police Battalions (SWAT)

There are sixteen Police Battalions to carry out general security duties under the command of Battalion Control Command. The Battalion Commandants are Police Lieutenant Colonels. As the populace of the cities including Yangon and Mandalay have been increased day after day, problems on social, economy and politics are risen up that could lead to emergence of civil unrest and sabotage. It is necessary to prevent from destruction and harassment, VIP and project factories and workshops, security of diplomats and their embassies. Seven of these Police Battalions are situated in the Yangon Divisional areas and two in Mandalay and three in Arakan, one in Sagaing, one in Mon State, one in Pegu, one in Prome.

These specially-trained and combat capable battalions are formed with personnel from former Riot Security Police, better known as "Lon Htein" Units. Each battalion consists of 500+ personnel and these battalions are supported by two support battalions, which include signal and medical units. These battalions structure are similar to that of Army's Light Infantry Battalions and they are subordinate to their respective Regional Military Commands.[3]

  • 1st Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Hlawga)
  • 2nd Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Maungtaw)
  • 3rd Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Shwemyayar)
  • 4th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Shwesaryan)
  • 5th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Hmawbi)
  • 6th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Shwepyitha)
  • 7th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Kyauktan)
  • 8th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Mingaladon)
  • 9th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Hlaingthaya)
  • 10th Combat Police Battalion
  • 11th Combat Police Battalion
  • 12th Combat Police Battalion
  • 14th Combat Police Battalion (HQ at Pa Lake, Mandalay)
  • 15th Combat Police Battalion
  • 16th Combat Police Battalion

Anti-Narcotic Task Forces

26 special anti-narcotic task forces have been established under the direction of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control.

Rank structure and insignia

Commissioned officers

Equivalent
NATO code
OF-10OF-9OF-8OF-7OF-6OF-5OF-4OF-3OF-2OF-1OF(D) and student officer
Myanmar Police Force
No equivalent
Police General
ရဲဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး
Police Lieutenant General
ဒုရဲဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး
Police Major General
ရဲဗိုလ်ချုပ်
Police Brigadier General
ရဲမှူးချုပ်
Police Colonel
ရဲမှူးကြီး
Police Lieutenant Colonel
ဒုရဲမှူးကြီး
Police Major
ရဲမှူး
Police Captain
ဒုရဲမှူး
Police Lieutenant
ရဲအုပ်
Police Sub-Lieutenant
ဒုရဲအုပ်
Police Cadet
ရဲအရာရှိလောင်း

Enlisted ranks

Equivalent
NATO Code
OR-9OR-8OR-7OR-6OR-5OR-4OR-3OR-2OR-1
Myanmar Police Force
No equivalent No equivalent
No insignia
Police Warrant officer
ဒုအရာခံဗိုလ်
Police sergeant
တပ်ကြပ်ကြီး
Police corporal
တပ်ကြပ်
Police lance corporal
ဒုတပ်ကြပ်
Policeman

Weapons and equipment

Myanmar Police Force uses wide range of weapons and ammunitions, ranging from Second World War vintage to modern sophisticated weapons. Most of the weapons are either seized from ethnic wars and narco-insurgents or locally produced copies of the G3 and other weapons phased out of their army.

SWAT battalions are armed with relatively modern small arms and members of MPF who are stationed in local police stations within States and Divisional Police Forces and those providing general guard duties at various government establishments and public places such as airports, train and bus stations, along with officers and detectives, are issued with Second World War vintage weapons.

Pistols

Sub machine gun

Rifles

Machine gun

Sniper rifle

Non-Lethal Weapons

Cars and Trucks

Motorcycles

  • Harley-Davidson motorcycle (For Pilot and Point)
  • Qingqi motorcycle (these motorcycles were used by motor vehicles police, Township Police and their informer illegal and without registration number)

Coastal Patrol Craft

Class Builder Serial Number Year Entered Service Armament Note
PGM class Myanmar331
332
333
334
2012machine guns

River Patrol Boat

Class Builder Serial Number Year Entered Service Armament Note
PCE class Myanmar,  China171
151
152
153
154
156
001
002
003
161
162
2013machine guns

Awards, commendations, citations and medals

See here for Awards and condecorations

See also

References

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