Bukit Aman (officially ''Ibu Pejabat Polis Diraja Malaysia'') is a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...

for a large area that serves as the

Royal Malaysia Police The Royal Malaysia Police (often abbreviated RMP) (; Jawi script, Jawi: ), is a (primarily) uniformed national and federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation, and its headquarters are located at Bukit Aman, Kuala ...

headquarters and has several police complexes. It is situated on a hill in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

known as Bukit Ayang (later renamed Bukit Aman, which translates as 'Peace Hill') and houses several buildings that serve as the headquarters for some departments of the Royal Malaysia Police. The Malaysia Control Centre, a national level command and control facility, is also located here.

History

1870s–1896

Bukit Aman was a police station for the

Selangor Military Police Force Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembi ...

(SMPF) and was known as Bluff Hill. The police station was built around 1871 and serves as the SMPF's Kuala Lumpur district headquarters. Bluff Hill Police Station was involved in the

Selangor Civil War The Klang War or Selangor Civil War was a series of conflicts that lasted from 1867 to 1874 in the Malay state of Selangor in the Malay Peninsula (modern-day Malaysia). It was initially fought between Raja Abdullah, the administrator of the ...

and was captured by rebel forces in 1872. Bluff Hill Police Station was later renamed Bluff Road Police Station. Captain Charles Henry Syers, the SMPF Commissioner of Police, relocated the SMPF's Headquarters from Klang to Kuala Lumpur in 1882, after Kuala Lumpur grew into a larger city as a result of

tin mining Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...

activities. At the time, SMPF had two police stations in Kuala Lumpur: Bluff Road Police Station and Central Police Station (located at the Pudu Road-Cross Road intersection), and Bluff Road was chosen as the headquarters.

1896–1940s

On 1 July 1896, all

state police State police, provincial police or regional police are a type of sub-national territorial police force found in nations organized as federations, typically in North America, South Asia, and Oceania. These forces typically have jurisdiction o ...

for the

Federated Malay States The Federated Malay States (FMS, , Jawi script, Jawi: ) was a federation of four protectorate, protected states in the Malay Peninsula — Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang — established in 1895 by the British government, and whi ...

' states were merged into the

Federated Malay States Police Federated may refer to: * Federated state, a constituent state within a federal state * Federated school, a model of administration in some educational institutions * Federated congregation, a type of religious congregation Computing * Federat ...

(FMSP), and the headquarters of SMPF were converted into the headquarters of FMSP. A police training depot was established here in October 1903. Two of the first police departments were established here in 1908: the Detective Branch and the Criminal Record Registration Branch. The training depot was relocated to Riffle Range Road in 1940, and it is now known as

PULAPOL The Malaysian Police Training Centre (, Pulapol) is the oldest police academy in Malaysia and the training institute for Royal Malaysia Police. It is located at Semarak Street (formerly Henry Gurney Street), Kuala Lumpur. It is the place where ...

During WWII

During WWII, Bluff Road Police Station served as a command centre for

Malaya Command The Malaya Command was a formation of the British Army formed in the 1920s for the coordination of the defences of British Malaya, which comprised the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and the Unfederated Malay States. It consi ...

in order to defend the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

. After the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

had taken over Malaya, the FMSP withdrew from Selangor and temporarily relocated to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. During the

Japanese occupation of Malaya Malaya, then under British administration,, was gradually occupied by Japanese forces between 8 December 1941 and the Allied surrender at Singapore on 15 February 1942. The Japanese remained in occupation until their surrender to the Allie ...

, the Bluff Road Police Station served as the Imperial Japanese Army's headquarters in Malaya.

Post-WWII

Bluff Road Police Station was returned to the British Administration after the Imperial Japanese Army surrendered. It later became the headquarters of the

Malayan Union The Malayan Union (; Jawi: كساتوان مالايا) was a union of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. It was the successor to British Malaya and was conceived to unify the Malay Peninsula under a single g ...

Police, and after Malaya gained independence from the United Kingdom, it became the headquarters of the Federation Police Force (). The name of Bluff Hill has been reverted to its pre-colonial era, Bukit Ayang; however, the Bluff Road Police Station has retained its name. Tun

Mohammed Hanif Omar Mohammed Hanif bin Omar (; 16 January 1939 – 20 April 2024) was a Malaysian police officer who served as the 4th Inspector-General of Royal Malaysia Police from June 1974 to January 1994. Assuming office at the age of 35, he was the youngest ...

, the then-

Inspector-General of Police An inspector-general of police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most ...

, renamed Bluff Road Police Station to ''Ibu Pejabat Polis Diraja Malaysia, Bukit Aman'' on 25 March 1975.

Tenants

The offices of the

, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, and Directors of various Police Departments are located in Bukit Aman. The following police departments have their headquarters here: * Management Department * Criminal Investigation Department * Internal Security and Public Order Department * Narcotics Crime Investigation Department * Commercial Crime Investigation Department *

Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...

Aside from the large police departments mentioned above, Bukit Aman has several police units stationed here, including: * Special Operations Command () ** Special Actions Unit * Bukit Aman Transportation Branch () *Bukit Aman Training Section ()

References

{{Reflist Royal Malaysia Police