History
The police service was established during the reign of Al-Sultan Muhammad Shamsuddeen III on 29 March 1933 with 120 police officers. Members of the force were issued the traditional Maldivian mundu and libaas as well as a cap, belt, and straps.
During the early days of the organisation, there was violence between the foreign merchants belonging to Bohra groups (followers of Tayyibi Isma'ilism) and the Maldivians. The foreigners ceased to do business with the Maldivians and closed their shops. The Police's inability to resolve the situation led to full-strength military intervention, which brought the situation under control by 15 May 1933.
The initial investigation office was small, with only three investigation tables, each representing a section of the service: Theft, Political and Serious Crimes. In 1970, the police office moved to the building that has since become the site of the Bandara Koshi library. Traffic Control and Accidents formed as a fourth section of the Police. The police force was temporarily disbanded and then re-established on 13 March 1972 as a branch of the security force, then known as the National Guards, functioning under the Ministry of Public Safety.
The service's operating procedures, established in 1933, were maintained until the election of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on 11 November 1978. When the force was restructured under the Ministry of Defence and National Security on 10 January 1979, National Guards were renamed as the National Security Service. In 1985, the headquarters were relocated to the building of the current Ministry of Defence and National Security. Apart from an administrative section, five investigation sections were formed.
In 1992, David Price from the West Yorkshire Police introduced the service's modern working structure, including the police beats and mobile patrols. They then shifted to the Shaheedh Hussain Adam Building in 1999. On 1 September 2004, the Maldives Police Service was formed under the Ministry of Home Affairs, signalling a major functional shift of the present administration. The National Security Service was later renamed the Maldives National Defence Force.
On 1 July 2013, a police reserve force known as the Special Constabulary was inaugurated. On 23 July 2013, the first official ceremony to commemorate Police Memorial Day was held, and the Police Memorial Wall was inaugurated to honour the members of the Maldives Police Service who died in the line of duty. The day is now an annual nationwide event that aims to remember, honour and pay respects to every police officer who died in the line of duty.
Equipment
On December 26, 2025, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Maldives, donated 23 items and 2,064 individual units of specialized rescue equipment to the Maldives Police Service (MPS), which included firefighting gear, pumps, and power equipment, marine and water rescue gear, emergency medical and first-aid equipment, field operations and technical rescue support, and personal protective equipment (PPE), as part of the Risk Informed Development in Small Island Developing States (RIDS in SIDS) project. This was done using donations from Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea.
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