Formed 1949 Jurisdiction National Employees (unknown) | Dissolved 1975 Headquarters Vientiane Annual budget (unknown) | |
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The Royal Lao Police (French: Police royale laotiènne – PRL), was the official national police force of the Kingdom of Laos from 1949 to 1975, operating closely with the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR) during the Laotian Civil War between 1960 and 1975.
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Structure
The Laotian security forces were divided into several 'branches of service', which comprised a plainclothes criminal investigation department, an urban constabulary, a regional gendarmerie and an counter-insurgency armed support unit. All these formations were answerable to the Laotian Ministry of the Interior of the Royal Lao Government in Vientiane.
Constabulary
The regular Laotian Police branch, this was the uniformed urban constabulary tasked of providing security and maintaining law and order in the main population centers, including the nation's capital city and the provincial capitals.
Gendarmerie
Direct heir of the French colonial 'Indigenous Guard', the paramilitary Laotian Gendarmerie was tasked of patrolling the countryside.
Directorate of National Coordination/Frontier Police
One particular ‘branch’ of the Laotian security forces that is worth mention is the Directorate of National Coordination or DNC (French: Direction de Coordination Nationale – DCN). The DNC was an airborne-qualified paramilitary élite police field force closely modelled after the Royal Thai Police Police Aerial Resupply Unit (PARU) 'Commandos' and similar in function to the Republic of Vietnam National Police Field Force. The unit had its origins in September 1960, when the PRL command ordered the creation of a ‘Special Mobile Group’ (French: Groupement Mobile Speciale – GMS) composed of two paramilitary special battalions (French: Bataillons Speciales – BS), 11th and 33rd BS.