British rule in Myanmar

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)

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

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.

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.^[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

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

Pistols

• Enfield revolver
• Colt Detective Special
• Ka Pa Sa MA5 MKI
• Ka Pa Sa MA5 MKII

Submachine guns

• Heckler & Koch MP5 (Norinco made NR-08)
• Ka Pa Sa BA-52
• Sten Gun
• BA93
• BA94
• MA13 MKI
• MA13 MKII

Shotguns

• Greener GP 12 Gauge Shotgun

Rifles

• M1 carbine
• Type-56 Carbine
• Type 63 assault rifle
• M1 Garand
• Lee–Enfield Rifles^[4]
• AK-47 series (Including Chinese Type 56)
• M16 rifle
• M4 carbine
• Norinco CQ
• Norinco QBZ 97
• Ka Pa Sa BA63
• Ka Pa Sa MA11
• Ka Pa Sa MA3

Machine gun

• Bren Gun
• Ka Pa Sa BA64
• Ka Pa Sa MA12
• Type 81 lmg (seized from ethnic militias)
• Type 56 lmg (seized from ethnic militias)

Sniper rifle

• M40 rifle (seized from ethnic militias)
• Ka Pa Sa BA100
• Ka Pa Sa MAS MKII

Non-Lethal Weapons

• Taser
• Pepper Spray cans
• Pepper-spray projectile gun
• Pepperball
• Rubber, beanbag, & plastic bullet
• Baton
• Riot shield
• M84 stun grenade
• Tear gas
• M6/M7 series chemical grenade
• Sting grenade

Automobiles

Armoured vehicles

Photo	Model	Type	Quantity	Origin	Notes
Armoured vehicle/Armoured personnel carrier
	ZFB-05	Armoured personnel carrier	10[5]	China	Received by 2011, they were transferred to police from Myanmar Army.[5]
	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

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

River Patrol Boat

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

Commissioned officers

Rank group	General / flag officers										Senior officers						Junior officers								Officer cadet
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

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

Citations

Sources