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Myanmar Police Force

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Myanmar Police Force
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့
Coat of arms
Coat of arms
Emblem
Emblem
Flag
Flag
Motto"ကူညီပါရစေ"
(May I Help You?)
Agency overview
Formed1964; 60 years ago (1964)
Preceding agency
Employees93,000 (2012)[1]
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionMyanmar
Legal jurisdictionMyanmar
General nature
Operational structure
HeadquartersNaypyidaw
Elected officer responsible
Agency executive
Parent agencyMinistry of Home Affairs
Child agencies
  • State and Division Police
  • Special Forces
  • Training Department
  • Reserve Units
  • Combat Police Battalions
  • Anti-Narcotics Task Force
Website
Official website

The Myanmar Police Force (Burmese: မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့), formerly the People's Police Force (ပြည်သူ့ ရဲတပ်ဖွဲ့), is the law enforcement agency of Myanmar. It was established in 1964 as an independent department under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

History

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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

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The primary police force in British Burma was the Burma Police. In addition, there was a paramilitary Burma Military Police, the Railway Police, and the Rangoon Town Police. From roughly 1891, most executive positions within the Burma Police were filled by members of the Indian Imperial Police cadre.

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. Another famous colonial policeman in Burma was Hector Hugh Munro, known as Saki.

Post-independence (1948–present)

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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 security force riot police and many beaten to death or drowned.

Despite controversies and corruption accusations, the Burmese police and the Home Affairs Ministry play an important role in the country, solving numerous crimes.

Police watching the Bangladesh border


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

  • Myanmar Railways Police
  • Intelligence division

Organisation

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The current director general of Myanmar Police Force is Major General Zin Min Htet with its headquarters in Naypyidaw. Its command structure is based on established civil jurisdictions. Under the command of police headquarters, state and region police forces have been established in respective territories of states and divisions with headquarters in their capital cities.[3]

State and division police forces

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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.[1]

  • 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 (HQ at Pyay/Prome)
  • 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

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

Weapons and equipment

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

Pistols

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Submachine guns

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Shotguns

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  • Greener GP 12 Gauge Shotgun [4]

Rifles

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Machine gun

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Sniper rifle

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Non-Lethal Weapons

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Automobiles

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Cars and Trucks

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Armoured vehicles

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Photo Model Type Quantity Origin Notes
Armoured vehicle/Armoured personnel carrier
ZFB-05 Armoured personnel carrier 10[6]  China Received by 2011, they were transferred to police from Myanmar Army.[6]
Sinotruk HOWO Water cannon truck unknown  China One of the most widely used against protesters in February 2021 Myanmar.
BAAC-87 Armoured personnel carrier unknown  Myanmar One of the most widely used against protesters in February 2021 Myanmar.

Coastal Patrol Craft

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Class Builder Serial Number Year Entered Service Armament Note
PGM class  Myanmar 331
332
333
334		 2012 machine guns

River Patrol Boat

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Class Builder Serial Number Year Entered Service Armament Note
PCE class  Myanmar,  China 171
151
152
153
154
156
001
002
003
161
162		 2013 machine guns

Rank structure and insignia

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Commissioned officers

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Rank group General / flag officers Senior officers Junior officers
Myanmar Police Force
ရဲဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး
raaibauilaʻ khayupaʻ krīʺ 		ဒုတိယရဲဗိုလ်ချုပ်ကြီး
dautaiya raaibauilaʻ khayupaʻ krīʺ 		ရဲဗိုလ်ချုပ်
raaibauilaʻ khayupaʻ 		ရဲမှူးချုပ်
raaimahūʺ khayupaʻ 		ရဲမှူးကြီး
raaimahūʺ karī 		ဒုတိယရဲမှူးကြီး
dautaiya raaimahūʺ karī 		ရဲမှူး
raaimahūʺ 		ဒုတိယရဲမှူး
dautaiya raaimahūʺ 		ရဲအုပ်
raai ’aupaʻ 		ဒုတိယရဲအုပ်
dautaiya raai ’aupaʻ 		ဒုတိယရဲအုပ်လောင်း
dautaiya raai ’aupaʻ laoṅaʻʺ

Enlisted ranks

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Rank group Senior NCOs Junior NCOs Enlisted
Myanmar Police Force
 No insignia No insignia
ရဲအရာခံဗိုလ်
Raai ’araā khaṃ bauilaʻ 		ရဲတပ်ကြပ်ကြီး
Raai tapaʻ karpaʻ krīʺ 		ရဲတပ်ကြပ်
Raai tapaʻ karpaʻ 		ဒုတိယရဲတပ်ကြပ်
Dautaiya tapaʻ karpaʻ 		ရဲတပ်သား
Raai tapaʻ saāʺ 		ရဲတပ်သားသစ်
Raai tapaʻ saāʺ sacaʻ

See also

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References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Police of Myanmar.

Citations

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  1. ^ a b Selth 2012, p. 59.
  2. ^ "Deputy Minister appointed and concurrently assigned to the duties of Chief of Myanmar Police Force". Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  3. ^ "Myanmar Police Force". ASEANPOL. Archived from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b The Greener Police Shotgun: Engineered gun control? May 20, 2017. Chris Egert. Guns.com Archived November 30, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "The Enfield No.4 in Myanmar after WWII". 13 May 2023. Archived from the original on 14 May 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Trade Registers". Armstrade.sipri.org. Archived from the original on 12 November 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2015.

Sources

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Books

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  • Selth, Andrew (2002). Burma's Armed Forces: Power Without Glory. Norwalk, CT: EastBridge. ISBN 1891936190.

Journal articles

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