Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal Eddin announced Thursday that the ministry is preparing to establish an airborne police department.
The department would have a profound impact on security, the minister said, particularly with regard to monitoring and following up on criminal activities and hideouts. He did not specify how the department would support security forces on the ground or what its exact role would be.
In a meeting with his deputies, Gamal Eddin spoke of unprecedented challenges to security services during the transitional period, saying that the Armed Forces had helped overcome such difficulties. The transitional phase laid the groundwork for stability, he added, which culminated in the constitutional referendum vote this month.
Participants in Thursday’s meeting discussed crackdowns on criminal activity across the country and ways to eliminate traffic jams.
Gamal Eddin requested that the police exert maximum effort to eradicate crime through a careful study of evidence, intensified presence on streets nationwide and increased security patrols and checkpoints.
The minister added that security forces must be bound by respect for rights and freedoms protected by law, pointing to the recently-established human rights division in the ministry as evidence that the security apparatus is attempting to respond to citizen demands for reform.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
