Every country needs a police force for enforcing law and order in the nation and ensuring that people are safe and protected in the areas that they live in. In Philippines, the civilian national police force is known by the name of Philippine National Police. This force was formed in the year 1991 and since then it has been eradicating crime and ensuring order in the country.
Within every police force, there are officers ranking at different levels, incharge of a different set of duties. Based on this, there is a proper hierarchical system within the Philippine police. Let’s look at this hierarchy structure in detail:
Police Ranks
The following is a list of the officers holding police ranks in the PNP.
Police commissioned officer shoulder ranks:
- Police Chief Superintendent– also known as the Brigadier general
- Police director– also known as the major general
- Police deputy director general- also known as the lieutenant general
- Police director general– also known as the general
- Police chief inspector– also known as the major
- Police superintendent– also known as the lieutenant colonel
- Police senior superintendent– also known as the colonel
- Police inspector– also known as the lieutenant
- Police senior inspector– also known as the captain
Police non-commissioned officer sleeve ranks:
- Senior police officer 1-also known as Staff Sergeant
- Senior police Officer 2-also known as technical sergeant
- Senior police officer 3-also known as master sergeant
- Senior police officer 4-also known as senior master sergeant /chief master sergeant
- Police officer 1-also known as private first class
- Police officer 2-also known as corporal
- Police officer 3-also known as sergeant
Apart from these ranks, there are several branches in the PNP and they are given as follows:
- Philippine National police Aviation security command
- Special action force
- Special weapons and tactics
- PNP Maritime group
- Program management office
- PNP Regional Public safety battalion
- PNP intelligence group
- Criminal investigation and detection group-this is a unit of PNP which is responsible for investigation of those major crimes which are of national importance and especially those crimes which are done against a national body of the country
- Philippine National Police Academy-this academy is the main academy for training of the PNP.
- National Operations center-this is another leg of the PNP and is responsible for some of the most major tasks handled by PNP
- Internal affairs service-the main task of this branch of PNP is to improve the overall image of the police force and is headed by the inspector general.
- Civil Security Group
- Administrative support unit-this unit has several subunits which are given as follows:
- Crime laboratory
- Finance center
- Civil security unit
- Logistics unit
- Communications unit
- Computer center
- Operational support unit-this unit has the following sub divisions which are given as follows:
- Maritime police unit
- Police security unit
- Police intelligent unit
- Special action forces
- Narcotics unit
- Criminal investigation unit
- Aviation security unit
- Civil relations unit
- Medical and dental centers
These are the main ranks and positions in the Philippine Police hierarchy and are given according to the superiority of the ranks.