Judicial Police (Arab Union)

The Judicial Police (Arabic: الشرطة القضائية ash-shurṭah al-qaḍā’īyah) is the main federal law enforcement agency of the Arab Union, coming under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General of the Arab Union. It is responsible for preventative and investigative policing at the federal level of government; the Judicial Police also provide bailiff services and security for federal courthouses, and administer the small system of federal prisons. Most actual law enforcement matters are handled by the National Police, the police services of each of the 20 republics (federated states) which make up the union.

Federal law enforcement jurisdiction is defined as investigations or other policing responsibilities which involve two or more republics or the union as a whole. Some of the primary responsibilities of the Judicial Police include conducting police operations and investigations at the federal level, combating national and international organised crime, investigating money laundering and narcotics and human trafficking networks, patrolling federal highways and roadways and federally-owned properties and assets, and enforcing criminal law at the federal jurisdictional level as per the direction of the Attorney General.

While the Judicial Police are officially responsible for and thus lead law enforcement operations coming under federal jurisdiction, in many larger-scale investigations and most other policing operations, much of the relevant police work will nonetheless be handled by local national police units at the direction of the leading Judicial Police units.

The Judicial Police are also responsible for executing federal warrants, leading nationwide manhunts and missing persons searches, operating the national witness protection program, protecting persons involved in the federal justice system deemed at risk, conducting rapid-deployment counterterrorism operations and other high-risk tactical security operations, responding to high-profile hostage situations, maintaining security at international airports and aboard all aircraft, transporting highly dangerous incarcerated persons, and managing a confidential informant and criminal intelligence program which cooperated with similar national police programs.

The Joint Security Committee (the Emni), the Arab Union's premier foreign intelligence and domestic security service, has a directorate responsible for domestic criminal intelligence and counterterrorism of its own; nevertheless, the majority of such domestic operations are handled by the Judicial Police, which also provides personal protective services to all but the most senior federal government officials (namely the President, Prime Minister and Council of Ministers).

The Judicial Police use the same ranking system as the national police agencies, the only exception being that the seniormost rank in the national police is "director" (مدير mudīr) while in the Judicial Police, a single director in turn answers to a "director-general" (مدير العام mudīr al-‘ām), who is appointed by and immediately answerable to the Attorney General.

Professional Standards Unit No.30 (شعبة المعايير المهنية ٣٠ة shu‘bat al-ma‘āyīr al-mahnīyah ath-thalāthūnah), informally PS-30, the unit within the Judicial Police which operates the federal witness protection program, also functions as the country's premier anti-corruption and professional standards service, thought to have significantly greater jurisdiction and scope of authority than similar anti-corruption units in the National Police, including access to significantly more sensitive information and highly classified files. Only the Joint Security Committee remains outside the full scope of PS-30, ostensibly due to the highly sensitive nature of its operations. Nevertheless, PS-30 possesses the lawful power to investigate all other civilian law enforcement constables and civilian staff (including the rest of the Judicial Police itself).