The Directorate General for National Security (DGSN; , ) is the national civil police force of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. It polices Algeria's larger cities and urban areas. The Sûreté is part of the

Ministry of Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, th ...

and is charged with maintaining law and order, protecting life and property, investigating crimes, and apprehending offenders. It also performs other routine police functions, including traffic control.

Organization

The DGNS is headed by a Director General and in 2007 consisted of a force of 130,000, including specialist operational and investigative branches and supporting services.

Directors

The

judicial police The judicial police, judiciary police, or justice police are (depending on both country and legal system) either a branch, separate police agency or type of duty performed by law enforcement structures in a country. The term judiciary police is mo ...

branch is responsible for criminal investigations, working in close coordination with the Office of the Public Prosecutor in the Ministry of Justice. Police are assigned to the capitals of the

wilayat A wilayah ( or ''wilāya'', plural ; Urdu, Pashto and ; ) is an administrative division, usually translated as "state", "province" or occasionally as "governorate". The word comes from the Arabic root "''w-l-y''", "to govern": a ''wāli''—"g ...

are under the nominal control of the individual governors. A special riot police force is equipped with modern riot-control gear. Although the police were able to cope with urban disturbances and violence during the early and mid-1980s, the military had to be called in to help quell the severe riots in late 1988.

Internal security

Elements of the DGNS nationale also play a role in countering threats to the government arising from political subversion. The Sûreté assigns police contingents to work with customs inspectors at legal points of entry to control illegal activities. Their main concerns are apprehending undesirable immigrants and contraband traffickers. The

Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité The Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS) (Arabic: دائرة الإستعلام والأمن) () was the Algerian state intelligence service. Its existence dates back to the struggle for independence. In 2016, it was dissolved by Pres ...

(DRS) is the Algerian state intelligence service. It is separate from Directorate General for National Security and was an active player in the

Algerian Civil War The Algerian Civil War (), known in Algeria as the Black Decade (, ), was a civil war fought between the Algerian government and various Islamist rebel groups from 11 January 1992 (following a 1992 Algerian coup d'état, coup negating an Islami ...

of the 1990s.Jeanne Kervyn and François Gèze
L’organisation des forces de répression
Comité Justice pour l'Algérie, Dossier n° 16. September 2004.

Weapons

Glock 17 Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer- framed, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military an ...

Beretta 92 The Beretta 92 (also Beretta 96 and Beretta 98) is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. History Carlo Beretta, Giuseppe Mazzetti and Vittorio Valle, all experienced firearms designers, contributed to ...

Caracal pistol The Caracal pistol is a series of semi-automatic pistols manufactured by Caracal International LLC a subsidiary of Tawazun Holding from the United Arab Emirates. Development In 2002, Austrian firearms designer Wilhelm Bubits who previously h ...

Smith & Wesson M&P The Smith & Wesson M&P (Military and Police) is a polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, short recoil operated, locked breech semi-automatic pistol introduced in the summer of 2005 by the American company Smith & Wesson. Most variants use a Recoil ...

* AKM *

Beretta M12 The Beretta M12 (Model 12) is a 9×19mm Parabellum caliber submachine gun designed by Beretta. Production started in 1959, the first users were the Italian Carabinieri, Italian State Police and the Guardia di Finanza, though in limited numbers; i ...

HK MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (, ) is a submachine gun developed in the 1960s by German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It uses a similar modular design to the Heckler & Koch G3, and has over 100 variants and clones, including selective fire, s ...

SKS The SKS () is a semi-automatic rifle designed by Soviet small arms designer Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov in the 1940s. The SKS was first produced in the Soviet Union but was later widely exported and manufactured by various nations. Its disting ...

Commonly Seen And Used Since

In The 1990s * UP19 was held by low ranks in the 2000's which is still being used.

Vehicles

Motorcycles

* BMW K1100RT *

BMW R1100RT The BMW R1100RT is a BMW touring motorcycle with a horizontally-opposed twin-cylinder boxer engine. It was built from 1996 to 2001 in the BMW Berlin plant in Spandau, together with several sister models of similar design, including the BMW R1100R ...

BMW K1600 The BMW K1600GT, K1600GTL, K1600 Grand America and K1600B are Touring motorcycles manufactured by BMW Motorrad. The former two were announced in July 2010, unveiled at the Intermot motorcycle show in Cologne in October 2010; they went on sale in ...

= Cars

Special vehicles

* BCL-M5 *

Nimr (armored personnel carrier) The Nimr () is a family of all-terrain military armored personnel carrier (APC) vehicles, co-developed with Russia's Military Industrial Company and produced by Nimr (vehicle manufacturer), Nimr LLC in the United Arab Emirates. The Nimr is designe ...

Aerial equipment

AgustaWestland AW109 The AgustaWestland AW109, originally the Agusta A109, is a lightweight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose helicopter designed and initially produced by the Italian rotorcraft manufacturer Agusta. It was the first all-Italian helicopter to b ...

Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil The Airbus Helicopters H125, previously the Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil, or Squirrel, is a single-engine light utility helicopter designed and originally manufactured by the French corporation Aérospatiale, and later by Eurocopter, now Air ...

References

Notes

Law enforcement in Algeria National Central Bureaus of Interpol {{law-enforcement-agency-stub