Early police force The first police force was created in 1872 and was named the
Corpo de Polícia Civil made by the governor
Caetano Albuquerque. The police force was organized as part of the Civil Police of the Portuguese Main. Its headquarters was in
Praia. In 1880, the Police Corps was restructured and became the
Police Company with a military based organization; the Company was based in Praia and had another station in
Mindelo. In 1962, a new police organization was formed in Cape Verde and transformed into
Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) of Cape Verde with a newly civil character, modeled after the
Polícia de Segurança Pública (Public Security Police) of Portugal. After Cape Verde became independent in 1975, it became the
Polícia de Ordem Pública (Public Order Police, or
POP), whose uniforms and colors were different from those of the Portuguese. Due to its historic relations, several of the officers were trained in Portugal, and the POP continued to maintain close links with the PSP, such as organization and uniforms.
Modern police force The current police force was created in May 1993. Since November 14, 2005, it is called the
National Police (
Policia Nacional). The first training course was held in 1994 and agents of the Judicial Police attended and completed by 3 and 20 candidates respectively. According to
Interpol, Cape Verde has two parallel police forces. The Judicial Police is under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, while the National Police is under the authority of the Interior Ministry. In Cape Verde there are 1,947 law enforcement officers of which 13% are women as of April, 2012. == Organization ==