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10 Police Stud.: Int'l Rev. Police Dev. 80 (1987)
Police Functions and Organization in Saudi Arabia

handle is hein.journals/polic10 and id is 78 raw text is: Police Functions and Organization in Saudi Arabia Abdulah Alobied, Saudi Arabia Abstract This is a discussion of the organization and training of the police of Saudi Arabia, especial- ly as they relate to the administrative, judicial, and social functions of law enforcement. Introduction After King Abdulaziz established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1924, he ordered the cabinet to organize the Ministry of In- terior. At that time the Ministry of Interior consisted of: 1. Public Safety Administration 2. Board Administration 3. Investigation Administration 4. Civil Defense 5. Police College 6. Immigration Administration All of these administrations are controlled by the Minister of Interior, as is demonstrated in Figure 1. The Minister of Interior must be a member of the Royal Family. The police system in Saudi Arabia has been highly centralized. All police forces in all areas are controlled by the Director of Public Safety, who reports to the Minister of Interior. Recent- ly the government started slightly decentraliz- ing the police system. There are five counties in Saudi Arabia. Each county has its police force. The General Manager of this county controls the police force and he works under the county or the city prince. The King appoints the county's prince. So the police system in Saudi Arabia is cen- tralized in that the Director of Public Safety controls all the police forces in the country, is responsible for hiring all police officers and receives all reports about the national security. Recently it has become slightly decentralized in that the district general manager of each county is responsible for the security in his county. Police Training Most of the police officers in Saudi Arabia are graduated from King Fahad Security College. After high school the students must spend three years in this college. The students com- plete many courses in different areas, including criminology, criminal psychology, Arabic language, criminal law, identification in- vestigation, Islamic law, International law, economics, English language, weapons, and others. After these three years, they become second lieutenants in one of the police stations in any city. The General Security office decides what kind of work the student will do. Some of- ficers are graduates of universities and they must spend nine months studying police science during this time. Candidates for the lower ranks know reading and writing and spend three months studying some police- related courses to work for the police. They never become officers because they don't have a degree from the King Fahad Security College or from another university. There are some ex- ceptions emanating from the King or from the cabinet. These exceptions occur, for example, if a policeman catches a very dangerous criminal or finds a large amount of drugs or weapons or is hurt in his job. Police Ranks in Saudi Arabia After the officer graduates from King Fahad Security College, he will be in the first rank. 1. Second Lieutenant The officer spends two years in this rank and he must take a general exam about the police system. 2. First Lieutenant The officer spends three years in this rank and he also takes a general exam about the police system. 3. Captain This is the long period in the officer's

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