Haitian National Police Police nationale d'Haïti
Common name	Police nationale
Abbreviation	PNH
Motto	Proteger et Servir Protect and Serve
Agency overview
Formed	December 23, 1994
Employees	13,196 (2023)
Jurisdictional structure
National agency	Haiti
Operations jurisdiction	Haiti
Size	27,750 km²
Population	11.9 million
Governing body	Cabinet of Haiti
General nature	Local civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Minister responsible	Carlos Hercules, Minister of Justice and Public Security
Agency executive	Vladimir Paraison, Director-General of the National Police
Facilities
Cars	Fiat Siena, Dodge Ram, Nissan Frontier, Lenco Bearcat, Toyota Landcruiser, Roschel senator
Website
Official website (in French)

The Haitian National Police (HNP or PNH; French: Police Nationale d'Haïti, lit. 'National Police of Haiti'; Haitian Creole: Polis Nasyonal Ayiti) is the law enforcement and police force of Haiti within the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.^[1] It was created in 1995 to bring public security under civilian control as mandated in Haiti's constitution. The force had 13,196 officers at the end of 2023, but only 4,000 are on duty at any given time.^[2]

The 1987 constitution called for the Public Force of Haiti to consist of the National Police and the Armed Forces, though the military government delayed the creation of a separate police force. Haiti had no history of civilian law enforcement before the founding of the PNH by a law of 23 December 1994. After Operation Uphold Democracy led to the restoration of the Jean-Bertrand Aristide administration in October 1994, an Interim Public Security Force was recruited from among soldiers of the military disbanded by Aristide and Haitian refugees to the U.S. that were held at Guantánamo Bay. PNH officers, trained at the newly founded National Police Academy in Pétion-Ville, Port-au-Prince, gradually took over security functions before the IPSF was dissolved in December 1995.

The PNH is led by the Director-General, assisted by an Inspector-General that ensures that the agency follows its own regulations, and consists of several departments. The two largest sections are the Administrative Police, which is the patrol police, and the Judicial Police, which is responsible for investigations. There are several more specialized units, including a presidential security unit, a SWAT team, and the Haitian Coast Guard.

Under Jean-Claude Duvalier, the Haitian Police was part of the Haitian Army from 1912 and had 14,000 members divided between the blue-uniformed Port-au-Prince Police and the Rural Security Companies. Since 1987, successive governments attempted to reform the national police as stated by the constitution it was created to maintain peace, enforce law and order in accordance with the rule of law, to protect its citizens and to arrest those that violate the law. However the police, being plagued by militarism, factionalism, and corruption, is mainly viewed by citizens as being repressive.^{[citation needed]}

The 1987 Constitution proposed the establishment of a separate police corps and a new police academy under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. Political developments in Haiti since 1987, however, have precluded implementation of these changes. Nevertheless, the mission of the police corps was almost indistinguishable from the mission spelled out for the FAd'H. The characterization of the police as a corps armée (armed corps) reinforced this similarity in missions.

The only identifiable police force in Haiti operated in Port-au-Prince as part of the armed forces. This 1,000-member force had few operational or technical capabilities, even though it was responsible for narcotics and immigration control and criminal investigations. In the late 1980s, the Narcotics Bureau, commanded by an army major, had acquired some visibility and resources of its own, with a reported staff of about twenty-five people.

There was no true rural police. Small garrisons, operating under military department command, with some cooperation from the lowest central government administrative head, section chief (chef de section), were responsible for rural security. In effect, the heads of these 562 rural communal sections (sections rurales communales) functioned as police chiefs, as adjuncts of the nation's military infrastructure. This fusion of civil and military administration continued to be possible because of the broad range of responsibilities assigned to the Ministry of Interior and National Defense.

After 1986 the armed forces failed to reestablish a nationwide police force and to subdue the MVSN and other vigilante groups. Some observers have argued that links between the senior army command and remnants of the MVSN have paralyzed reforms in Haiti's judicial system. An illustration of their point was the reported incorporation of some MVSN personnel into FAd'H units and some members of the VSN, as plainclothes paramilitary agents, in the Dessalines Battalion. Other MVSN members found their way into cadres of the Port-au-Prince police force, particularly in the Criminal Investigation Unit (Recheraches Criminelles—renamed in 1988 the Anti-Gang Investigations Bureau), which was traditionally based at the Dessalines barracks. The demise of the Dessalines Battalion and the Leopards, the latter of which had served as Haiti's special weapons and tactics unit, raised questions in the spring of 1989 about the future of a national police force.

The Avril government reported some success in cracking down on abuses within the security services, but violence continued to be a serious problem. Insecurity rose dramatically after 1986 with the formation of ad hoc paramilitary groups that had direct links to the VSN and indirect links to the military. Many of these paramilitary groups engaged in banditry with no political motivation. The security situation in rural regions and at the section chief level remained unclear in 1989.

The human-rights record of post-Duvalier governments was generally negative. A major problem was the inability, or the unwillingness, of the FAd'H to contain domestic political violence. Government and military personnel apparently sanctioned and participated in attacks on politicians and other activists, particularly during the second Namphy government. The Avril government boasted an improved record in this area, but as of mid-1989, it had proved incapable of restoring order.

Haitian military and police often brutally interrogated detainees. Rural section chiefs, who wielded considerable power within their limited jurisdictions, arbitrarily harassed and physically abused citizens, according to some reports. In an effort to address this problem, Avril dismissed a number of section chiefs, and issued a decree in December 1988 that ended appointments of section chiefs and proposed putting the posts up for election (see Urban Dominance, Rural Stagnation, ch. 9).

Harsh conditions prevailed in the prison system. Hygiene, food, and health care were inadequate, and prison staff regularly mistreated inmates. The Avril government closed two facilities closely associated with the repression of the Duvalier regimes— Fort Dimanche and the detention center of the Criminal Investigation Unit, both in Port-au-Prince—because of the abuses that had commonly taken place there.

Political turmoil between 1986 and 1989 resulted in popular justice and mob violence. The international media reported on some of this violence and featured scenes of burning or dismembered bodies. Continued human-rights violations are likely to attract international criticism during the 1990s. Lasting improvements in internal security, however, appeared unlikely without the establishment of functional civilian institutions and some resolution of the status of the former members of the tonton makouts.

In September 1994, the U.S.-led Operation Uphold Democracy ended the military junta led by Raoul Cédras, and in October 1994 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned from exile. His administration disbanded the Armed Forces of Haiti in late 1994. The military was replaced by the Interim Public Security Force (IPSF), which was led by former army major Dany Toussaint.^[3][4] The IPSF consisted of about 1,000 Haitian refugees held by the U.S. at Guantánamo Bay and about 3,300 former soldiers that had been vetted to prevent any human rights violators from joining the force.^[4] After six days of training that emphasized human rights, the interim police were deployed to provide public security under the oversight of the civilan police officials from the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH).^[4][5]

Aristide replaced the military with a civilian national police.^[6] Haiti had no previous history of civilian law enforcement,^[5] and the PNH represents a departure from the army's traditional role of internal security.^[4] The law establishing the PNH, passed on 23 December 1994,^[7] subordinates it to the Minister of Justice and Public Security, through the Secretary of State for Justice (Public Security).^[8] The PNH is led by a Director-General appointed by the president from among police commanders or directors and subject to Senate approval. There is also the Office of the Inspector-General, tasked with ensuring internal discipline, while the two main branches of the PNH are the Administrative Police, responsible for day-to-day public security, and the Judicial Police, a detective force that assists the courts with investigations.^[8] The regional structure consists of a police director in each of Haiti's nine departments, with 130 municipal (city) commissioners below them, 185 sub-commissariats led by a chief inspector, and 577 sub-precincts led by a supervising sergeant, the latter either in a small town, or the smallest unit within a city or a rural area. Specialized units include the National Palace Guard, the Presidential Security Unit, the Ministerial Security Corps, the Company for Intervention and Maintaining Order (crowd control), and the Intervention Group of the National Police of Haiti (SWAT team). From 1997, the Haitian Coast Guard and the Counter-Narcotics Unit began to be deployed, also under the PNH.^[9]

The National Police Academy was inaugurated at the Camp d'Application in Port-au-Prince in January or February 1995.^[4][5][3] It offered four-month courses to classes of 375 recruits each, and starting from June 1995 they began gradually replacing the IPSF, whose members were proportionally demobilized, starting with the worst that were evaluated by the UNMIH civilian police officials.^[3][4][5] On 6 December 1995 the IPSF was disbanded and its remaining roughly 1,000 members, consisting of former FAd'H officers and "Guantánamo police" recruits, were incorporated into the PNH.^[5] On 17 February 1996 the first stage of the training program for the PNH was completed, with 5,201 recruits having graduated from the National Police Academy. The training there included education on Haitian law and the constitution.^[5] The PNH reached its target strength of 6,500 by early 1998, but it declined to 6,000 as of late 1999 because of dismissals,^[4] which included some of the newly trained officers. The PNH was considered more respectful of human rights than the FAd'H had been, but struggled to control crime, experiencing a shortage of weapons and demoralization. There was also a lack of senior officers.^[6] The PNH remained professional and apolitical from 1995 to 1997, when Aristide started to fill the ranks of the PNH with his own loyalists.^[10] The cutoff of U.S. assistance in 2000 also undermined the PNH.^[11]

In Aristide's second term, the police was used against protestors and had connections to drug trafficking.^[12][11] Three officers were killed on 28 July 2001 during an attack by former soldiers on the National Police Academy.^[13] During the February 2004 coup d'état, the PNH collapsed when paramilitary rebels and gangs captured much of northern Haiti and advanced on Port-au-Prince.^[14] The interim government failed to restore public order or stop the violence. By the end of Aristide's presidency the PNH was a "demoralized and discredited force," outnumbered by former soldiers, gangsters, and other criminals.^[15] Over forty officers were killed over the next year,^[12] and as of the summer of 2005, the PNH and foreign peacekeepers failed to arrest many of the armed groups,^[16] which had an estimated strength of 20,000 to 30,000.^[17] Armed groups continued to hold police stations and other government buildings in many towns for over a year after the coup.^[15][16] Haiti had one of the highest crime rates in the world, comparable to Central America.^[17]

During the leadership of Mario Andrésol as director-general of the PNH from 2005 to 2012, he increased the professionalism of the force, contained gang violence, and arrested many corrupt officers involved in crime. The PNH also increased from 5,500 officers in 2004 to over 9,000 by 2008.^[18][19] In 2012, a plan was accepted to increase the force to 15,000 officers by 2016.^[20]

The gang war in Haiti that escalated in 2021 overwhelmed the PNH. Over 3,000 officers resigned between 2021 and 2023.^[21] In September 2023, the PNH presented a police tactical unit dedicated to anti-gang operations known as UTAG or the Temporary Anti-Gang Unit.^[22] Three officers of the Anti-Gang Tactical Unit were killed on 9 June 2024 by gang members of the Viv Ansanm gang coalition. As of June 2024, 323 police officers had been killed since 2015, out of which 120 were killed between October 2021 and June 2024.^[23] In late 2025, the P4000 program to train 4,000 police officers in anti-gang operations with the help of foreign countries was started. The first cohort of 877 officers graduated in January 2026.^[24]

The PNH is led by the Director-General, and other senior leadership positions include the Inspector-General, the Director of the Administrative Police (the patrol police), and the Director of the Judicial Police (the investigative police).^[5]

Although officially part of the police force, the Presidential Security Unit operates with its own budget and administration.

• Adrien Rameau (May–December 1995)^[5]
• Fourel Celestin (acting, December 1995–21 February 1996)^[5]
• Pierre Denizé (21 February 1996^[5]–2002^[25])
• Jocelyne Pierre (27 June 2003^[26]–3 March 2004^[27])
• Léon Charles (4 March 2004^[28]–25 July 2005^[29])
• Mario Andrésol (25 July 2005^[30]–18 August 2012^[20])
• Godson Aurélus (18 August 2012^[20]–April 2016^[31])
• Michel-Ange Gédéon (April 2016^[31]–26 August 2019^[32])
• Rameau Normil (acting,^[23] 27 August 2019–13 November 2020)^[33]
• Léon Charles (13 November 2020^[33]–21 October 2021^[34])
• Frantz Elbé (21 October 2021^[34]–15 June 2024^[35])
• Rameau Normil (15 June 2024^[35]–8 August 2025^[36])
• Vladimir Paraison (8 August 2025^[36]–present)

The National organization of the PNH is as follows:

• Direction Générale de la Police Nationale d’Haiti or DGPNH (General Directorate of the National Police of Haiti)
• Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale d’Haiti or IGPNH (Inspector General of the National Police of Haiti)
• Direction des Renseignements Généraux or DRG (Direction of the General Information)
• Cabinet Du directeur Général de la Police Nationale d’Haiti - CAB ( Cabinet of the Director General of the National Police of Haiti)
• Direction du Développement Ou Commissariat au Plan or DDCP (Direction of the Development or Planning Commission)

Direction Centrale de l’Administration et des Services Généraux or DCASG (Central Directorate of the Administration and General Services) is responsible for human resources, the finances, and logistics needs of the National Police of Haiti It includes the following components:^[37]

1. La Direction des Finances et de la Comptabilité (DFC) - The Directorate of Finance and Accounting
2. La Direction du Personnel (DP) - The Directorate of Personnel
3. La Direction de la Logistique (DL) - The Directorate of Logistics
4. La Direction des Ecoles et de la Formation Permanente (DEFP) - The Directorate of Schools and Continuing Education
5. L'Administration Pénitentiaire Nationale (APENA) The National Penitentiary Administration

Direction Centrale de la Police Administrative or DCPA (Central Directorate of the Administrative Police force) Under Article 28 of the Act establishing and organizing the National Police, the Central Directorate of Administrative Police (DCPA) is the body responsible for designing and implementing measures to safeguard the peace, tranquility and good public order. Administrative Police objectives are: to observe laws and regulations, prevent the commission of crimes and offenses against the established order, maintain order and restore where appropriate, the DCPA is thus to design and make implement measures to:^[37]

1. Ensure public safety, protecting people, property and state institutions.
2. Ensure the safeguarding of peace, tranquility and good public order throughout the national territory.
3. Ensure law enforcement and in rehabilitation where appropriate.
4. Channel, coordinate and supervise the operation mode of decentralized territorial commissions across the country.
5. Provide ongoing and in coordination with other relevant departments needs reinforcement in certain districts of the country's sociopolitical life.
6. Maintain a national registry of detention and request authorization to carry firearms.

Administrative Police directorates:

• La Direction de la Circulation et de la Police Routière (DCPR) - The Traffic and the Highway Police Directorate
• La Direction de la Protection Civile et des Secours (DPCS) - The Civil Defense and Rescue Directorate
• La Direction de la Sécurité Publique et du Maintien de l’Ordre (DSPMO)- The Public Security and Maintenance of Order Directorate
• La Direction des Services Territoriaux (DST) - Territorial Services Directorate
• La Direction de la Police de Mer, de l’Air, des Frontières, de la migration et des Forêts. (DPM-A-Ff-Mi-Fo) The Water, Air, and Border Police Directorate

Administrative police special units are:

1. Le Corps d'Intervention et de Maintien de l'Ordre (CIMO) - Intervention and Maintenance of Order Corps (Riot Police)
2. Le Groupe d'Intervention de la Police Nationale d'Haïti (GIPNH) - National Police Intervention Group, the national SWAT team.
3. L'Unité de Sécurité Générale du Palais National (USGPN) - The General Security Unit of the National Palace (USGPN)
4. Le Corps des Sapeurs-Pompiers et de Police-Secours (CSP-PS)- The Fire Brigade and Emergency Police
5. L'Unité de Sécurité de la Direction Générale (USDG) - The Security Unit of the Directorate General (USDG)
6. L'Unité de la Sécurité du Conseil Electoral Provisoire - The Security Unit of Provisional Electoral Counsel
7. L'Unité de la Sécurité Judiciaire (USJ)- Unit of the Judicial Security
8. L'Unité de Sécurité Diplomatique (USD) - The Diplomatic Security Unit
9. Le Commissariat de l'Aéroport (CA) - The Airport Commission
10. Le Commissariat de Malpasse (CM) - The Commissioner of Malpasse
11. Le Commissariat des Garde-Côtes (CGC) - The commission for the Coast Guard
12. Le Service de permis de port d'armes à feu (SPPAF) - The Permits to Carry Firearms Service
13. L'Unité de Sécurité de l'INARA, chargée de sécuriser le programme de la réforme agraire - INARA Unit Security responsible for securing of the Land Reform Program
14. L'Unité de Sécurité et de Garde Présidentielle (USP), chargée de la protection du Chef de l'Etat - The Security Unit and Presidential Guard (USP), responsible for the protection of the President of Haiti
15. Le Service National de Lutte Contre Incendie (SNI), chargé de combattre les incendies - The National Service to Control Against Fire (NIS), responsible for fighting fires
16. La Police de l'air, chargée de surveiller les frontières aériennes; (PA) - Police to patrol air, to monitor air borders;

Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire or DCPJ (Central Directorate of the Judicial police) is the Detective service of the Haitian Police. It has six (6) offices in thirty sections or services, and two hundred sixty nine staff. It is located in the Clercine neighborhood at an extension of the Terminal Guy Malary and is housed in a thousand square meter building. All DCPJ units are housed together since September 2005, with the exception of Police Science and Technology Center. Previously the DCPJ shared the room with the Departmental Direction of the West is moved over two years towards the city center.

The Central Directorate of Judicial Police's mission is to find the perpetrators of crimes, gather evidence and clues in order to bring them in front their natural judge within the time fixed by law. It fulfills its role primarily in the field of serious organized crime. It is also responsible for combating transnational crime in cooperation with Interpol.

Furthermore, the diverse nature of crimes and criminals easy to change their method and procedure necessary to impose the DCPJ duty to dispose of bodies specialized in the fight against organized crime to carry out its mission.

The Police Judiciaire includes the following services:

• Le Bureau des Affaires Criminelles (BAC) - The Criminal Affairs Bureau
• La Brigade de Recherche et d’Intervention (BRI) - The Research and Intervention Brigade
• Le Bureau de Renseignements Judiciaires (BRJ) - The Judicial Information Bureau
• La Brigade de Protection des Mineurs (BPM) - The Protection of Minors Brigade
• La Brigade de Lutte contre le Trafic de Stupéfiants (BLTS) - The Controlling of Narcotics Trafficking Brigade
• Le Bureau de la Police Scientifique et Technique (BPST) - The Police Scientific and Technical Bureau
• Le Bureau des Affaires Financières et Economiques (BAFE) - The Financial and Economic Affairs Braigade
• La Cellule Contre Enlèvement (CCE) - Anti-Kidnapping Cell

These are the Police forces for the Departments of Haiti. The departments are further divided into 41 arrondissement offices, and 133 communal offices.^[38]

• Direction Département de L’Ouest or DDO (Direction Department of the West)
• Direction Département de L’Artibonite or DDA (Direction Department of Artibonite)
• Direction Département du Nord-Est or DDNE (Direction Department of the North-East)
• Direction Département du Nord or DDN (Direction Department of North)
• Direction Département du Sud-Est or DDSE (Direction Department of the South East)
• Direction Département du Nord-Ouest or DDNO (Direction Department of the North-West)
• Direction Département du Centre or DDC (Direction Department of the center)
• Direction Département de La Grande-Anse or DDGA (Direction Department of the South-West)
• Direction Département du Sud or DDS (Direction Department of the South)
• Direction Département des Nippes or DDnippes (Direction Department of Nippes)

The Haitian National Police has a Coast Guard. It currently has twelve vedettes and seven Go-fast patrol boats. Its main functions are law enforcement and surveillance of Haitian waters.^[39]

The creation, training and deployment of the first contingents of the PNH, as a new police force separate from the Haitian Army, had raised difficult issues for decisions on the integration of former military officers experienced in Police Affairs in the ranks of the new National Police of Haiti, since it was important not to import the abusive practices that have made the reputation of some former members of the Armed Forces of Haiti. In addition, attention to executive reward Haitian militancy of its supporters by awarding positions in public administration, including the PNH, had greatly influenced the recruitment of new Haitian officers.

The personal allegiance required of new graduates of the academy and the police school by the Head of State made training and effective monitoring of the members of the police force difficult. This resulted in an officer cadre whose training and ethics are inadequate, and that a significant fraction is related to human rights abuses, drug trafficking, illicit enrichment, and most vicious crimes, including the latest fashion is to say the kidnapping of peaceful and honest citizens, as well as their wives and their children.

In recruiting members, including the transfer or promotion of any member to a new assignment, the PNH will:

• Using the constitutional provisions, laws of the Republic and its internal rules to reject any interference from political authorities in the efficient functioning of the police institution, especially as regards the management of its human resources;
• Using modern means of communication, including media, to inform the population, in the most comprehensive and transparent on its recruitment goals and general employment opportunities, in order to equalize the chances of participation of any individual qualified;
• Strengthen the process of selection of all candidates for a career in the police institution, both pre-requisite personnel, supporting documentation required, as written examinations, medical, physical and psychological, including a further verification of the personal history of candidates, particularly in relation to their performance in previous jobs, general crime, abuse of human rights and domestic violence;
• Apply a uniform and consistent testing, standards and regulations relating to recruitment;
• Train managers and other employees of the institution to an efficient, impartial and professional staff recruitment;
• Seek foreign assistance, as needed, to strengthen the management capacity of the recruitment process, particularly as related to verification of the candidate's personal history, skills and psychological profile of candidates.

Haiti's National Police has only 9,000 active duty officers in a country of more than 11 million people, and officials say the department remains under resourced and understaffed despite international help.^{[40][circular reference]}

• Dodge Ram^[41]
• Fiat Siena^[42]
• Lenco Bearcat^[43]
• INKAS Sentry APC and Geebor MRAP ^[44][45]
• Nissan Frontier^[46]
• Terrier LT-79^[47]
• Toyota Hilux^[48]

• IMI Galil
• R4 assault rifle
• M16 rifle
• Heckler & Koch G3
• FN MAG
• M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle
• T65 assault rifle
• M1911 pistol
• M1919 Browning machine gun
• Uzi
• M60 machine gun
• M4 carbine
• Benelli M4
• M14 rifle
• 12 gauge shotgun

At the Police Academy, it is important to modernize the curriculum and management training programs, and to strengthen the capacity of Haitian management. In Haiti, the pressing need for police personnel had helped train more than 5,000 police officers in six months as part of a training program administered mainly by international donors. The Haitian Police Academy is under the control of the Police Nationale d'Haiti, which appoints the director with the approval of the Supreme Council of the National Police (CSPN).

Formed in 1994, the academy hosted its first director in May 1995, and was able to transfer responsibility for the training of national police from 1998 under the supervision of instructors Haitians instead of foreign instructors ICITAP. In 2006, the presence of a large contingent of foreign police within the mission of the MINUSTAH and UN civilian police, was an opportunity for capacity building Haitian, development of curriculum, the 'teaching and administration of the National Police Academy. The specific objectives of reform include:

• Strengthening the basic training curriculum to a standard equivalent to the best standards and practices;
• Increased international cooperation in matters of curriculum development for basic training, and teaching practice;
• The overhaul of the structure and administrative practices of the National Academy of Police, to parity with international institutions like best.

In 2022, the Head of the Haitian Police Academy, Harington Rigaud, was fatally shot at the doors of the police training facility in the country's capital of Port-au-Prince.^[49]

• Law enforcement in Haiti
• Armed Forces of Haiti

This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

• Carey, Henry F. (2005). "The Third U.S. Intervention and Haiti's Paramilitary Predicament". Journal of Haitian Studies. 11 (1): 88–111. JSTOR 41715292.
• Metz, Helen Chapin (2001). Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies. Area handbook series. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8444-1044-9.

• Official website Archived 2009-01-22 at the Wayback Machine
• Canadian Embassy article
• FAS weapons invantory Archived 2016-03-15 at the Wayback Machine