(AFP Photo)
President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi issued a decree Monday to create a new police rank, with the title of Associate Security Officer “to increase the security personnel facing crime threats in all forms and patterns”, said a Monday statement from the Presidential Spokesperson.
The rank of associate security officer will be assigned to people between the ages of 19 and 23 to make use of people who have completed preparatory school. These officers will also have the power of arrest.
Officers with this rank will follow the same rules and procedures that apply to policemen, except for certain regulations that have to do with promotion and study requirements.
According to Khaled Okasha, former Brigadier General of the Egyptian military, the law aims to organise the administrative structure within the Interior Ministry. “There is a fatal deficit in the numbers of personnel working for the ministry so [there is a need for] general reform for the administration,” he said.
Malek Adly noted that creating a new police rank and granting it the power to arrest is “not good”. He added that they are people of limited education, given too much power there is doubt to how they are going to use it.
Adly pointed that the decree, though issued by Al-Sisi, is against the law as the President does not have the power to give anyone the power to arrest.
