Shura Council set to vote on Bahrain Police Law key amendments

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

The Shura Council will on Sunday debate and vote on changes to the 1982 Public Security Forces Law, the main statute that governs how Bahrain’s police are organised and managed.

The amendments include a proposal to rename it the Bahrain Police Law and to modify promotion rules, internal bodies and welfare funds.

The Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee has backed the draft and is calling on members to pass it in line with the position already taken by Parliament.

The committee examined the draft alongside the view of the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee, which said the text fits within the Constitution and existing law.

It also reviewed a legal note from the committee’s advisers and studied Parliament’s decision and annexes.

This is the second time the upper chamber has considered the proposal, after earlier committee work discussed in April.

The bill, attached to Decree No 26 of 2025, consists of four articles and a preamble.

Under Article 1, certain words and phrases in the current Public Security Forces Law, issued by Decree-Law No 3 of 1982, would be replaced to match the Interior Ministry’s present structure and job titles.

Provisions

Article 2 rewrites a group of core provisions, including those on who is treated as a member of the police, the internal set-up of the ministry, promotion and training. Article 3 removes a block of older provisions, while Article 4 deals with putting the amendments into effect.

According to the memorandum from the Legislation and Legal Opinion Commission, the draft is intended to keep pace with changes inside the Interior Ministry and with its current approach to discipline in the service.

Categories

The text would add some posts to the categories treated as police and give the minister wider room to run promotions, transfers, secondments, overseas courses and leave through ministerial decisions rather than through scattered clauses in the 1982 law.

One proposed change concerns the name of the statute. Under the bill, the Public Security Forces Law would take the title Bahrain Police Law.

The committee says this matches day-to-day police work and tasks and ties the law more clearly to duties such as maintaining order, protecting public safety, preventing accidents and risks and dealing with crime across the kingdom.