Royal Bhutan Police

The Royal Bhutan Police (RBP; Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་འཛིན་ཉེན་རྟོག་པ་) is the national civilian police force of the Kingdom of Bhutan. It is responsible for the prevention and detection of crime, maintenance of public order, traffic control, immigration and border policing, prison administration, fire and emergency services, and the protection of life and property across all twenty dzongkhags. The force was created on 1 September 1965 by royal command of the Third King, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, when 555 personnel were transferred from the Royal Bhutan Army to form a separate civilian service.^[1]

The RBP is headquartered in Thimphu and is led by a Chief of Police holding the rank of Major General. Its statutory framework is the Royal Bhutan Police Act 2009, which replaced an earlier 1980 statute and brought the force into line with the 2008 Constitution. Administratively, the RBP falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs, but the appointment of its Chief and senior officers is a royal prerogative exercised by the Druk Gyalpo on the recommendation of the Prime Minister and the Police Service Board.^[2] The force has been a member of INTERPOL since 19 September 2005.

The current Chief of Police is Major General Chimi Dorji, who has held the post since 2016 and was promoted to the rank of Major General by His Majesty on 5 March 2020.^[3] 1 September is observed annually as Police Raising Day.

Origins and Early History

Before 1965, internal policing duties in Bhutan were carried out by the army. The Third King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck's modernisation programme — which included the abolition of slavery and the labour-tax system, the founding of the National Assembly in 1953, the High Court in 1968 and the country's first motorable road to India in 1962 — created a need for a dedicated civilian law-enforcement body separate from the military. On 1 September 1965 the King issued a royal command transferring 555 personnel from the Royal Bhutan Army to form the new force, initially organised as a frontier and internal-security service.^[1]

The first generation of officers was sent abroad for training, beginning with two lieutenants despatched to India in 1966 for the Indian Police Service course. Formal in-country training began in 1975 at a facility known as Dradul Makhang, later renamed Zilnon Namgyeling and eventually relocated to Jigmeling in Sarpang. Through the 1970s and 1980s the force expanded gradually from a few hundred personnel concentrated in Thimphu, Phuentsholing and the larger dzongkhag headquarters into a national service with a presence in every district.^[3]

The first dedicated police statute, the Royal Bhutan Police Act 1980, gave the force a statutory identity distinct from the army. With the promulgation of the 2008 Constitution and the transition to constitutional democracy, this earlier law was replaced by the Royal Bhutan Police Act 2009, which remains the principal legislation governing the force today.

Legal and Constitutional Framework

The constitutional position of the RBP is set out in Article 28 of the Constitution, which deals with national defence and internal security and identifies the Druk Gyalpo as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, including the police. The force operates under three principal statutes:

Royal Bhutan Police Act 2009 — the founding statute, which defines the structure, ranks, powers, duties, discipline, accountability and training of the RBP, and establishes the Police Service Board responsible for advising on appointments and promotions.^[2]
Penal Code of Bhutan 2004 (and its 2011 amendment) — defines the substantive offences the RBP investigates.
Civil and Criminal Procedure Code 2001 — sets out arrest, search, seizure, detention and bail procedures.

Under the 2009 Act, the Chief of Police and the Additional and Deputy Chiefs of Police are appointed by the Druk Gyalpo from a list submitted by the Prime Minister, drawn in turn from candidates recommended by the Police Service Board on the basis of seniority, qualification and capability. The Chief of Police exercises wide statutory discretion over command, budget, postings, promotions, awards and discipline, on the advice of the Service Board.^[2]

Structure and Organisation

The RBP is organised around a national headquarters in Thimphu, supported by field divisions in each dzongkhag and a set of specialised divisions reporting to the Chief of Police. Districts are grouped into administrative ranges under range police officers, with district police officers heading the force in each dzongkhag.

Principal divisions and units include:

Investigation Bureau — handles serious and complex crime, reporting directly to the Chief of Police.
National Central Bureau (INTERPOL) — Bhutan's liaison point with INTERPOL since 2005.
Traffic Division — road safety, vehicle registration enforcement and road accident investigation.
Tourism Police — assistance to international visitors and enforcement at major heritage and trekking sites.
Cyber Crime Unit — investigates online fraud, cyber harassment, child sexual abuse material and computer misuse, with both technical and operational responsibilities.^[4]
Forensic Science Laboratory — opened in 2023 in Thimphu.
Women and Child Protection Division (WCPD) — established in March 2013 alongside the Domestic Violence Prevention Act.
Anti-Trafficking and Special Branch — counter-terrorism, intelligence and human-trafficking work.
Fire Services and Prison Services — both administered as RBP divisions, including the operation of Chemgang Central Jail and other correctional facilities.
Police Headquarters Band — performs at state ceremonies, royal events and tshechus.

Ranks

The Royal Bhutan Police Act 2009 establishes eighteen ranks divided between commissioned officers and other ranks. The commissioned officer ladder mirrors the Royal Bhutan Army and runs from Second Lieutenant through Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier, Major General, Lieutenant General and General. Non-commissioned and other ranks include Warrant Officer (Classes I–III), Sergeant Major, Staff Sergeant, Sergeant, Corporal, Lance Corporal and constable. The Chief of Police is the senior operational rank in the force; in modern practice the post has been held at Major General level. According to the RBP's own Statistical Yearbook, commissioned officers make up roughly 4 per cent of the workforce, non-commissioned ranks around 94 per cent, and civilian staff the remaining 2 per cent.^[5]

Roles and Responsibilities

The RBP is the country's general law-enforcement agency. Its statutory remit covers crime prevention and investigation, public order, traffic management, fire and rescue, prison administration, immigration enforcement at official entry points, royal protection in cooperation with the Royal Body Guard, and disaster response in cooperation with the De-suung Guardians of Peace.

Border policing on the southern frontier with India and the northern frontier with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China is a shared responsibility with the Royal Bhutan Army; the RBP staffs official border check-points and immigration desks while the army handles military patrolling. During Operation All Clear in December 2003, when the RBA cleared camps belonging to ULFA, NDFB and KLO from southern Bhutan, the RBP played a supporting role at border checkpoints and in subsequent screening of arrested militants.

Counter-narcotics enforcement is conducted in cooperation with the Bhutan Narcotics Control Authority (BNCA), the autonomous regulatory body that oversees the Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Substance Abuse Act. The RBP also receives criminal referrals for investigation from the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Office of the Attorney General.

One of the most internationally reported areas of RBP enforcement was the Tobacco Control Act 2010, under which the force conducted high-profile prosecutions for tobacco smuggling between 2010 and 2012. The most widely reported case was the arrest of a Buddhist monk, Sonam Tshering, in Haa on 24 January 2011 for possessing chewing tobacco worth a few hundred ngultrum; he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment under the Act, drawing extensive coverage from foreign media before the law was substantially relaxed in 2012 and effectively reversed in 2021.

Women and Child Protection

The first Women and Child Protection Unit (WCPU) was established at Thimphu Police Station in 2007, providing dedicated, women-staffed spaces for victims of domestic and sexual violence. In March 2013, alongside the passage of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act 2013, the unit was upgraded into a Women and Child Protection Division at headquarters level.^[6]

By 2024, with the opening of a Women and Child Protection Desk in Lhuentse, the RBP achieved nationwide coverage with desks in all twenty dzongkhags. According to figures published jointly by the RBP, the National Commission for Women and Children and UNICEF, between 2007 and 2024 a total of 12,654 women and 3,748 children who were victims or survivors of gender-based violence received support through the desks and units, with domestic violence the most commonly reported issue.^[6] In 2020 Lieutenant Colonel Karma Rigzin, the WCPD's founding head, was named a US State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Hero for her anti-trafficking work.

Training

RBP recruits go through a basic course of approximately nine months covering law, weapons handling, drill, unarmed combat, first aid and investigation procedure. Training is delivered at three principal facilities: Zilnon Namgyeling near Thimphu, the Police Training Institute at Jigmeling in Sarpang, and Tashigatshel in Chhukha.^[3]

Officer training is heavily integrated with Indian police institutions under bilateral training arrangements. Bhutanese officers regularly attend courses at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, the CBI Academy in Ghaziabad, the National Investigation Agency, the Bureau of Police Research and Development, and other Indian establishments. The force also participates in regional cooperation through SAARCPOL and INTERPOL, and has hosted training delivered by Australian, Austrian, Japanese and Singaporean partners.

Modernisation

Since the late 2010s the RBP has run a series of modernisation projects under the broad heading of "smart policing". The most significant has been the establishment of the Royal Bhutan Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Thimphu, the first dedicated forensic facility in the country. Construction began in September 2021 with funding from the Austrian Development Cooperation, and the laboratory was inaugurated in October 2023. It comprises units for DNA analysis, fingerprint examination and data integration, with planned expansion into toxicology and digital forensics. Before its opening Bhutan was reliant on Indian and Thai laboratories for forensic analysis in serious criminal cases.^[7]

Other modernisation initiatives include the Bhutan Police Information System for case and personnel management, expansion of the Cyber Crime Unit's digital forensics capacity through equipment grants, the gradual rollout of CCTV in Thimphu and Phuentsholing, and engagement with the Council of Europe's Octopus cybercrime project.^[4]

Notable Operations

2008 Bombings and Communist Party Investigation

In the months around Bhutan's first parliamentary elections in March 2008, the banned Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist) claimed responsibility for a series of small bomb attacks, the most prominent being a coordinated set of explosions in southern Bhutan on 20 January 2008 that injured one woman. The RBP, working with the army, investigated the attacks and conducted a wave of arrests in the south during March 2008 in which Bhutanese forces reported killing five alleged militants and arresting seventeen others. Subsequent prosecutions under the National Security Act 1992 and the Penal Code resulted in long custodial sentences for several defendants. Some of those convictions are part of the long-running political prisoner cluster documented by international human rights organisations (see below).

Tobacco Control Enforcement

Between 2010 and 2012 the RBP enforced the new Tobacco Control Act with a series of prosecutions that produced more international press coverage than any other recent RBP operation. The arrest and three-year sentence of the Buddhist monk Sonam Tshering on 24 January 2011 became an emblematic case of the law's severity and contributed to its eventual relaxation.

Human Rights Concerns

The conduct of the RBP in cases involving political detainees has been a subject of sustained criticism by international human rights organisations. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the United States Department of State have all raised concerns about the treatment of detainees during the wave of arrests that followed the Lhotshampa political mobilisation of 1989–92 and again after the 2007–08 Maoist arrests.

According to Human Rights Watch, which documented the cases of 37 long-term political prisoners in a 2023 report, prisoners and former prisoners interviewed described being severely tortured both to extract confessions and as punishment, and said that they had been produced in court to confirm prosecution statements that had been coerced under torture. Several said they were held without legal representation at trial.^[8] The same report and a follow-up published in March 2025 alleged that detainees had been held in incommunicado pre-trial detention at police lock-ups for extended periods. The cases are also the subject of WGAD Opinion 60/2024, in which the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found a number of the detentions to be arbitrary in international law.

The Royal Government of Bhutan rejects the characterisation that prisoners were political. In submissions to the Universal Periodic Review and in responses to UN special procedures, the government has stated that those convicted in these cases were prosecuted under ordinary criminal and national security law, that the Royal Bhutan Police operates within the limits of the Constitution and the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code, and that allegations of mistreatment are dealt with through the force's internal disciplinary mechanisms. The RBP maintains that custodial conditions and procedural safeguards have improved significantly under the 2009 Act and the post-2008 constitutional framework.

Coverage of these issues in Bhutan-based media has been limited. Most of the documentation comes from exile publications, foreign journalists and the human rights organisations cited above; Kuensel and BBS have generally not reported on the specific allegations of torture and forced confessions. This is consistent with the wider pattern of self-censorship documented by Reporters Without Borders and the Bhutan Media Foundation in recent press-freedom assessments.

Relationship to Other Security Institutions

The RBP is one of four uniformed services in Bhutan, each with a distinct mandate:

The Royal Bhutan Army is the principal military force, responsible for the defence of the kingdom and for border security in the high Himalaya.
The Royal Body Guard of Bhutan is a dedicated royal protection force separate from both the army and the police.
The De-suung Guardians of Peace is a civilian volunteer corps under direct royal command, whose role is community service and disaster response rather than law enforcement, although desuups frequently work alongside the police on traffic and crowd management.
The Department of Forest and Park Services maintains its own forest rangers, who handle wildlife and protected-area enforcement under the Forest and Nature Conservation Act.

Coordination among these forces in major incidents is exercised through the Ministry of Home Affairs at the civilian level and through the office of His Majesty as Supreme Commander.

Contact and Headquarters

Royal Bhutan Police Headquarters

Address: Police Headquarters, Chang Lam, Thimphu, Bhutan
Emergency: 113 (Police) / 110 (Fire) / 112 (Ambulance)
Website: rbp.gov.bt
Founded: 1 September 1965 (observed as Police Raising Day)
Chief of Police: Major General Chimi Dorji