Major Restructuring to SO Department at Maldives Police Service

TMJ has received reports that plans have been made to make major organisational changes to the Specialist Operations Department (SO) within the Maldives Police Service.

In this regard, Public Order Units run under the department will be transferred to the local Vilifulus departments. An SO commander who spoke to TMJ said that the decision would seriously undermine the Police Service. He also noted that this was something that the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party had decided to do before coming to power. As per the current plans, the services provided by the SO Department would be SWAT and providing police protection.

The SO Department's Public Order Units are instrumental in controlling protests. The units operate under the command of individual team leaders. Under the new heirarchy, the units would operate under the Vilifulus.

When asked for comment, the media official for the Maldives Police Service had answered that no such plans had been made. It is worth noting that the media official had, on many occasions, been made aware of such decisions once they had been announced to the public.

Many members of the MDP believe that President Mohamed Nasheed's resignation from the presidency on February 2012 had been enforced by the SO Police. More than 60 SO Police officers have been transferred to other departments since President Solih took office.