Sisi Issues a Decree to Create a New Police Rank with Arrest Powers

Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree on Monday to create a new police rank with arrest powers, the move will increase the number of law enforcement staff.

Spokesperson to the presidency, Alaa Youssef said in a statement that the decision aims at creating a new rank of ‘police aides’ who will be appointed and trained according to specific criteria.

The low ranking police positions will be limited to 19 to 23 year-olds who have completed preparatory school.

Meanwhile, security expert and former assistant interior minister Mohamed Sadek, told Ahram Online that this decision will allow the new police aides help other ranks of low ranking policemen who have arrest powers.

The institute for low ranking police officers has not been accepting any applicants for the past seven years, says Sadek, explaining that their number has been shrinking with the political turmoil and unrest across the country.

In March 2013, Egypt’s prosecutor-general Talaat Abdullah, who was working under the authority of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, urged all citizens to exercise the right afforded them by Article 37 of Egypt’s criminal procedure law issued in 1950 to arrest anyone found committing a crime and refer them to official personnel, sparking public criticism of the statement at the time as illegal.

No such suggestion has been made by subsequent officials.

Egypt has been plagued by a number of attacks on security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula since the ouster of Morsi last year, killing hundreds of police and army officers.

Authorities at the interior ministry have been collaborating with military forces to impose security across the nation as forces have launched a crackdown on Islamists since Morsi’s ouster. Nonetheless, have been caught up in security forces’ tightening grip.

Source: Ahram Online