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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
Throughout its prerevolutionary history, the mission and
operating concepts underlying the Libyan police system were the
same as those in many other Muslim societies. The traditional
concept of police or shurtah was a broad one. Because the
shurtah were used from time to time by the government in
power to undertake new conquests, security force commanders often
had full-sized armies at their disposal. Domestically, however, the
shurtah were primarily responsible for suppressing
dissidence and insurrections as well as performing other internal
security duties. The latter duties typically embraced the kinds of
administrative and judicial functions often required of urban and
rural police, such as the prevention of crime, investigation and
arrest of criminals, and maintenance of public order. Some of these
concepts have survived in present-day Libya; others have been
altered in response to the changing needs of the society.
Shortly after the 1969 coup, military officers were temporarily
integrated into key police positions to guard against a
countercoup. A complete reorganization of the police followed over
the next three years. An early step in the process of stripping the
police of paramilitary status was the consolidation of the regional
police forces into a unified organization under the Ministry of
Interior. In 1971 new separate agencies to handle civil defense and
fire protection were provided for by law. Ministerial decrees
established other units, such as the Central Traffic Department,
the Central Department for Criminal Investigation, the Arab
International Criminal Police Bureau, the Ports Security
Department, the Identity Investigation, and the Police Training
Department. A special police law promulgated by the RCC in January
1972 spelled out the new functions of the police force, which was
formally redesignated the Police at the Service of the People and
the Revolution. The police were specifically charged with
responsibility for "the administration of prisons, civil defense
activities, passport and nationality affairs, identity card
affairs, and other functions set forth by laws and bills."
Individual police units were under the jurisdiction of regional
security directorates throughout the country, with primary
responsibility for enforcing the laws and administering the police
falling under the minister of interior and his deputy. A special
police affairs council--composed of the deputy minister as
chairman, the directors of the central police department, the
regional chiefs, and a legal adviser--was empowered to coordinate
activities of various police branches and to issue decrees on
police matters.
Police ranks followed closely those of the armed forces. An
officer candidate had to be a Libyan citizen at least twenty years
of age, of good conduct and behavior, in good physical condition,
and not married to a foreigner. He also had to be a graduate of the
police academy. Police work was considered a prestigious
occupation, and its attractive working conditions and benefits
reportedly produced well-qualified applicants who underwent stiff
competition for vacancies. However, standards may have deteriorated
as more lucrative opportunities in the oil industry and in
government became available for those with sufficient education.
In a counterpart to the media attacks on the professional
military in 1983, the official Libyan press targeted the police as
lacking revolutionary zeal. The press demanded greater direct
responsibility for the masses in protecting the people's security.
Articles was recalled that the police were descended from the
mobile forces of the Idris regime, headed by "fascist, bourgeois
officers" who had suppressed all manifestations of discontent with
the royalist system. Police officials were accused of engaging in
licentious behavior, of drinking liquor, and of carrying on illegal
businesses. They were charged with being "feudalistic" in their
behavior, of being ill-educated because many lacked a high- school
diploma, and often unfit for duty because of advancing age.
Declaring that "security is the responsibility of the people as
a whole in the same way as the defense of the homeland is," Qadhafi
announced in 1985 that the police would henceforward be known as
the People's Security Force. Whether this name change accomplished
much seemed doubtful; the official press complained that all that
had happened was that signs over the police stations now read
"People's Security Station."
Data as of 1987
The Police System
Throughout its prerevolutionary history, the mission and
operating concepts underlying the Libyan police system were the
same as those in many other Muslim societies. The traditional
concept of police or shurtah was a broad one. Because the
shurtah were used from time to time by the government in
power to undertake new conquests, security force commanders often
had full-sized armies at their disposal. Domestically, however, the
shurtah were primarily responsible for suppressing
dissidence and insurrections as well as performing other internal
security duties. The latter duties typically embraced the kinds of
administrative and judicial functions often required of urban and
rural police, such as the prevention of crime, investigation and
arrest of criminals, and maintenance of public order. Some of these
concepts have survived in present-day Libya; others have been
altered in response to the changing needs of the society.
Shortly after the 1969 coup, military officers were temporarily
integrated into key police positions to guard against a
countercoup. A complete reorganization of the police followed over
the next three years. An early step in the process of stripping the
police of paramilitary status was the consolidation of the regional
police forces into a unified organization under the Ministry of
Interior. In 1971 new separate agencies to handle civil defense and
fire protection were provided for by law. Ministerial decrees
established other units, such as the Central Traffic Department,
the Central Department for Criminal Investigation, the Arab
International Criminal Police Bureau, the Ports Security
Department, the Identity Investigation, and the Police Training
Department. A special police law promulgated by the RCC in January
1972 spelled out the new functions of the police force, which was
formally redesignated the Police at the Service of the People and
the Revolution. The police were specifically charged with
responsibility for "the administration of prisons, civil defense
activities, passport and nationality affairs, identity card
affairs, and other functions set forth by laws and bills."
Individual police units were under the jurisdiction of regional
security directorates throughout the country, with primary
responsibility for enforcing the laws and administering the police
falling under the minister of interior and his deputy. A special
police affairs council--composed of the deputy minister as
chairman, the directors of the central police department, the
regional chiefs, and a legal adviser--was empowered to coordinate
activities of various police branches and to issue decrees on
police matters.
Police ranks followed closely those of the armed forces. An
officer candidate had to be a Libyan citizen at least twenty years
of age, of good conduct and behavior, in good physical condition,
and not married to a foreigner. He also had to be a graduate of the
police academy. Police work was considered a prestigious
occupation, and its attractive working conditions and benefits
reportedly produced well-qualified applicants who underwent stiff
competition for vacancies. However, standards may have deteriorated
as more lucrative opportunities in the oil industry and in
government became available for those with sufficient education.
In a counterpart to the media attacks on the professional
military in 1983, the official Libyan press targeted the police as
lacking revolutionary zeal. The press demanded greater direct
responsibility for the masses in protecting the people's security.
Articles was recalled that the police were descended from the
mobile forces of the Idris regime, headed by "fascist, bourgeois
officers" who had suppressed all manifestations of discontent with
the royalist system. Police officials were accused of engaging in
licentious behavior, of drinking liquor, and of carrying on illegal
businesses. They were charged with being "feudalistic" in their
behavior, of being ill-educated because many lacked a high- school
diploma, and often unfit for duty because of advancing age.
Declaring that "security is the responsibility of the people as
a whole in the same way as the defense of the homeland is," Qadhafi
announced in 1985 that the police would henceforward be known as
the People's Security Force. Whether this name change accomplished
much seemed doubtful; the official press complained that all that
had happened was that signs over the police stations now read
"People's Security Station."
Data as of 1987
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