Sheriff of the Arab Union

The Sheriff of the Union of Arab Republics (Arabic: شريف اتحاد الجمهوريات العربية sharīf ittiḥād al-jumhūriyāt al-arabīyah) is the highest-ranking member and executive leader of the Arab Union Sheriff Service, the primary and largest federal law enforcement agency of the Arab Union, formally the Union of Arab Republics (UAR). The Sheriff of the Arab Union is appointed by the President of the Arab Union on advice of the Attorney General, to the latter of whom the Sheriff is directly answerable. While other agencies just as the Joint Security Committee have federal law enforcement authority, such authority is primarily limited to the realm of national security and related activities; in fact, according to the Constitution of the Arab Union, the Sheriff of the Arab Union is the highest federal civilian law enforcement official.

The Sheriff is supported by an Undersheriff (العمداء al-‘amdā’) whom the Sheriff appoints, to whom many of the Sheriff's routine responsibilities are delegated, allowing more time for the Sheriff to focus on service improvements and to attend official, public and political meetings and events. According to the constitution, in the event of the death or incapacitation of the Sheriff, the Undersheriff becomes Acting Sheriff of the Arab Union until the recovery of the incumbent Sheriff or the appointment of a new Sheriff by the President. The incumbent Sheriff of the Arab Union since September 2015 is Rifaf Jarallah.

Personnel subordinate to the Sheriff and Undersheriff are known as sheriff's deputies, or deputies for short (نواب nawāb; sg. نائب nā’ib). The Arabic word for "officer" (ضابط ḍābiṭ) is only used to refer to officers of one of the republics' national police services or of the Nasser City Police Service, as well as correctional officers, with law enforcement personnel of the Sheriff Service always referred to as deputies (except, as mentioned above, the agency's two highest-ranking officials, namely the Sheriff and Undersheriff). The Undersheriff is literally the deputy of the Sheriff, but is never referred to by this term.