page_title: National Police of Peru
section_title: 1923–1986: The changing evolution of Peruvian security services
hierarchical_section_title: National Police of Peru / History / 1923–1986: The changing evolution of Peruvian security services
caption_attribution_description: English: Policemen of the Police Corps "Civil Guard of Perú" in full dress. Español: Guardias de la 1ª Comandancia Mixta de la Guardia Civil del Perú en uniforme de gala.
context_page_description: The Peruvian National Police is the national police force of Peru. Its jurisdiction covers the nation's land, sea, and air territories. Formed from the merge of the Investigative Police, the Civil Guard, and the Republican Guard in 1988, it is one of the largest police forces in Latin America. Its mission is to preserve domestic order, public order and national security, in order to enforce the law and protect the people of Peru. The PNP is controlled by the Peruvian Interior Ministry. The PNP has a number of divisions, tasked with enforcing specific aspects of the law; among the more well known are DIROES, DIRANDRO, DIRINCRI, and DIRCOTE.
context_section_description: Thanks to the Spanish mission to Peru of the Spanish Civil Guard the nation had professional civil security forces for the first time. The brand new uniforms of the Civil Guard and the Security Corps reflected the effects of that mission: While the new Civil Guard kept the kepis with their dress beige uniforms Security Corps personnel wore peaked caps with their dress and duty blue uniforms. Civil Guards were also distinguished by the very same items Peruvian Army cavalry officers used then in their uniforms while the Security Corps uniforms were modeled on those worn by European police services of the period. This mission also provided for the establishment of the state investigations service, in 1922 it would bear fruit with the raising of the Investigations and Surveillance Brigade of the Civil Guard, then a brigade-sized formation, and at the same time, the 1st "Republican Guard" Gendarme Battalion became a full regiment. The combined forces, reporting to the Ministry of Government and Police from now on, were led by an Inspector General.
  Police organization in the rural and urban areas then were different from each other. Rural organization of the Civil Guard was on posts, lines, sectors, commands and regions while Security Corps' urban organization  mirrored military organization save that, instead of companies, commissaries were the basic unit.
  The cavalry was formed under the name of the Cavalry Squadron of Provincial Security, which was organized on the basis of the Cavalry Gendarme Squadron "Lima Guard" at the "Quinta de Presa", one of the new mounted police units to be raised as part of the Civil Guard. Two more were later raised, but all were disbanded in 1923 and converted to instruction squadrons in the Police Academy. The 1st Gendarme Cavalry Squadron, at the same time, became the mounted component of the 1st Combined Arms (Cavalry and Infantry) Security Regiment, and the Gendarmerie Provincial Cavalry Squadron became the Provincial Security Cavalry Squadron. On February 22, 1924, President Augusto B. Leguía, via a Supreme Resolution from the Cabinet, formally raised a Machine Gun Battalion to reinforce the ranks of the Security Corps to fulfill its mandate of public order.
  The baptism of fire for the new Security Corps came with the death of two personnel from the service on May 26, 1924, while on a routine mission in Villa de Olaya.
  The August 18, 1924 decree established the 1st Joint Command of the Civil Guard, with an Infantry Battalion, composed of two companies, and a Cavalry Squadron (formed on the basis of the former mounted police). Its duties began the same month, with its first personnel enlisted in 1925, detached from the two Civil Guards infantry companies' headquarters to the San Lazaro Barracks located at Matamoros Street, in the Rimac and the Cavalry Squadron's headquarters would be at Conchucos in the Barrios Altos, Lima, headquarters that the coming years would become the headquarters of the Cavalry Squadron of the Police and Civil Guard Guardsman's School until the end of 1965 when they moved to the Civil Guard Instruction Center (now the National Police Officer's School) Mariano Santos in the district of La Campiña, Chorrillos. The 1st Command would move to new quarters on 1644 28 July Avenue on January 16, 1937.
  The Health Service of the Police was created by Supreme Decree of December 4 of 1924 as the support service of the Civil Guards and the Security Corps. The Civil Guard Second Command, the customs police arm of the Civil Guard, would be raised on August 1, 1925, by virtue of a Supreme Decree. Its baptism of fire came in 1927 while fighting the forces of local rebel Eleodoro Benel Zuloeta in Cutervo Province and later while fighting warlords in Cajamarca. Due to this and other actions the Civil Guard size was increased and 3 independent companies had to be raised as a result.
  A presidential decree of March 28, 1928 established August 30 every year as Police Day. Its first observance was marked by a grand parade in Lima's outskirts by all the participating units. Law No.6183 enact
caption: Civil Guard of Peru in 1924
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