National Police Service (Bulgaria)


The National Police Service, also known as the General 'Directorate "National Police"' is an independent agency of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for general law enforcement in Bulgaria.

History

Directorate for Police and State Security (1925–1944)

With the creation of the "Law for administration and police" in 1925 was established the "Police and State Security Directorate".
Its duties included enforcing laws and ensuring the safety of the country. It continued to function until 1944 with the creation of the People's Militia.

Militia (1944–1989)

The People's Militia was established by the Council of Ministers with Decree No. 1 on 10 September 1944.
The Directorate of the People's Militia was structured into two departments: State Security and People's Militia.
On April 1, 1947, the Main Directorate of the People's Militia was established, which included the Directorate of State Security and the Directorate of the People's Militia.
The militia functioned as a basic police force, but also acted as an intelligence agency and spied on both its own and foreign citizens, secretly gathering information for the communist party.
With the democratic changes of 1991, the People's Militia was replaced by the National Police.

General Directorate of the National Police (1991–present)

With the fall of communism in 1991 was established the National Police Directorate and later, in 1993 was accepted the new law for the national police.
In 2008 the national police numbered 47000 officers and 5000 administrative workers. In 2022 a total of 53114 officers and ~4000 civilian workers served under the GDNP.

Directors

  • Encho Staykov
  • Radenko Vidinsky
  • Rusi Hristozov
  • Blagoi Penev
  • Major General Georgi Krastev
  • Colonel Petko Stoyanov
  • Grigor Shopov
  • Major General Georgi Krastev
  • Lieutenant General Nikola Angelov
  • Major General Kostadin Iliev
  • Major General Ivan Dimitrov
  • Colonel Hristo Velichkov
  • Colonel Viktor Mihailov
  • Major General Hristo Marinski
  • Colonel Slavcho Bosilkov
  • Major General Vasil Vasilev
  • Major General Ilia Iliev
  • Lieutenant General Valentin Petrov
  • Chief Commissioner Veselin Petrov
  • Chief Commissioner Krasimir Petrov
  • Chief Commissioner Todor Grebenarov
  • Chief Commissioner Hristo Terziyski
  • Senior Commissioner Nikolay Hadzhiev
  • Chief Commissioner Stanimir Stanev  
  • Senior Commissioner Atanas Ilkov
  • Chief Commissioner Vencislav Kirchev
  • Atanas Ilkov

    Structure

The National Police has the following structure:
  • General Directorate "National Police"
  • Director
  • *departments and sectors directly subordinated to the Director
  • *Deputy Director
  • **Criminal Police Department
  • **Economic Police Department
  • *Deputy Director
  • **Department for Investigations
  • **Department for Methodic Supervision of Investigations
  • **independent sectors
  • *Deputy Director
  • **Public Order and Territorial Police Department – Security Police, Traffic Police
  • **Specialized Police Forces

    Ranks and insignia

;Others

Inventory

Small arms

Vehicles