JEDDAH, 19 January — Saudi Arabia’s various security agencies have provided training to about 60,000 police officers during the past two years, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday quoting Maj. Gen. Hassan ibn Abdullah Al-Ghati, assistant director of public security for operations.
"The training courses we conducted during this period were also attended by more than 6,000 secondary school graduates, whom we believe will add new blood to our security agencies," he said.
Al-Ghati said the public security department gives utmost importance to the training of its officers to improve their capabilities and to keep them abreast with modern developments in the security field.
He said the department for operations is working on restructuring public security agencies and bring about qualitative changes.
Al-Ghati said his organization was also working to reorganize the Traffic Department in order to improve its performance. "We have set out a plan to restructure the patrol police division. We have also made changes to the police division and public administration to improve their efficiency," he added.
He commended the result of the first nationwide traffic awareness campaign launched by the traffic department in its bid to cut down the appalling number of road accidents in the country.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Abdullah Al-Shahrani, director of Riyadh police, said his department was deploying secret police in civilian dress to keep a watch on troublemakers during the ongoing Gulf Cup football tournament.
Speaking to Al-Jazirah daily, he said the secret police will take note of any offensive behavior by football fans.
He said his department has also worked out a security and traffic plan for the GCC event, which was opened in Riyadh on Wednesday. He warned Saudi youth against celebrating the victory of the national team in a way that would cause harm to the public.
