Kuwait
| Author | George Kurian |
| Pages | 566-568 |
Page 566
Official country name: State of Kuwait
Capital: Kuwait City
Geographic description: A country in the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Iraq
Population: 2,335,648, of which 55% are foreigners (est. 2005)
The first Kuwaiti police force was set up soon after the British takeover of the emirate in 1899. It was a small force of eighty men designed to protect the port from thieves. Over the years it grew in numbers and in the scope of its operations until it became the Department of Public Security in 1938.
The national police force is divided into three territorial departments and ten administrative departments. The three territorial departments correspond to the three governorates of Hawalii, Al Ahmadi, and Al Kuwayt, in each of which the police are headed by a director of security. Under him there are a number of district police commands, each headed by an area commander appointed by the governor. The director of security of the Al Kuwayt governorate is a full colonel, while the other nine area commands under him are headed by officers with the grades of captain, major, or lieutenant colonel. These officers supervise a total of twenty-seven police stations manned in shifts by three or four police officers and ten or more police officers and police guards.
The ten administrative departments are: Alien Registration, Communications, Crime Prevention, Criminal Investigation, Emergency, General Security, Identification, Public Relations, Prisons and Traffic, and Emergency, including the Fire Service. The police service was opened to unmarried women in 1975.
Police officer grades are the same as in the regular armed forces, except that the highest listed police rank is that of major general. Officer base pay and social allowance scales are the same. The police do not use the rank of warrant officer, but they do have five grades of noncommissioned officers—in descending order, master sergeant, corporal, lance corporal, policeman, and police guard. The pay and allowances for a master sergeant are about the same as for a chief warrant officer in the army, and for a police guard...
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