Marrakech – Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) marks its 70th anniversary on Saturday, May 16. Established in 1956 shortly after independence, the institution enters its eighth decade amid a sustained modernization drive and a notable decline in violent crime.
The DGSN’s 2025 record covers policing, digital transformation, training infrastructure, crime statistics, and international engagement, Morocco’s state news agency MAP detailed in a comprehensive report.
On the crime front, the directorate recorded approximately 779,008 criminal cases in 2025. That figure remained stable compared to the previous year. More significantly, violent crime – the category most directly tied to public safety perceptions – dropped by 10%.
The decline came within the framework of the DGSN’s 2022-2026 phased security strategy, which prioritized strengthening crime-fighting units, upgrading forensic laboratories, and expanding the systematic use of criminal intelligence tools across investigations.
The directorate also continued efforts to embed a human rights dimension into policing. Institutional partnerships were implemented throughout the year to align criminal investigation techniques with human rights standards. The focus fell particularly on the preliminary investigation phase and pretrial detention procedures.
In digital transformation, the DGSN completed the rollout of a computerized system for digitizing traffic accident reports across all security commands nationwide.
The system enables faster processing of traffic cases and automated extraction of accident statistics for use in road safety strategies. Separately, the directorate intensified campaigns to expand access to the new electronic national identity card across the country.
Training infrastructure saw concrete expansion. A new police training academy opened in Marrakech in 2025 as part of the DGSN’s regional training hub strategy. A similar academy is planned for Casablanca in the near term.
The directorate also accelerated implementation of its new recruitment and training charter, increasing the number of new police officers called up for basic training at the Royal Police Institute and its affiliated schools.
On the personnel front, the DGSN adopted what it described as an integrated approach to employee welfare. Measures included new incentive mechanisms, professional support tools, and workplace protections. The directorate framed these steps as central to managing the police service effectively.
The institution’s community policing efforts also expanded. The DGSN pursued its plan to strengthen proximity policing and deepen engagement with civil society and media.
Communication strategies were diversified, with more participatory approaches involving institutional and community actors. The directorate described this as part of a broader philosophy of “co-producing security” – positioning citizen service as the primary objective of the public policing function.
Security diplomacy now stands at the center of Morocco’s strategic statecraft
Internationally, the most prominent milestone was Morocco’s hosting of the 93rd Interpol General Assembly in Marrakech. Delegates from 196 countries attended.
The session adopted Interpol’s new 2026-2030 strategy and elected a new president. Prefect Mohammed Dkhissi was elected vice-president of the organization – a result the DGSN characterized as an endorsement of the Moroccan security model’s credibility and professionalism.
The Interpol event capped a year of active security diplomacy led by DGSN-DGST Director General Abdellatif Hammouchi. The directorate’s international footprint has grown steadily under his tenure.
What was once a domestically focused urban policing apparatus – built in the urgency of 1956 to hold cities and give structure to a still-fragile post-independence state – now operates as a vehicle of Moroccan soft power. Its security diplomacy spans the Euro-Atlantic space, the Sahel, and the broader Middle East, producing political and development dividends that extend well beyond law enforcement.
The DGSN’s partners have publicly acknowledged that European counterterrorism efforts cannot function without Moroccan cooperation and preventive intelligence. That positioning has made it difficult, as one Moroccan editorial put it, to discuss international security without recognizing the exception the Moroccan model represents.
The DGSN’s operational credibility was tested at scale during AFCON 2025. The directorate deployed 6,000 mobile cameras across 75 sensitive sites and ran a layered security architecture linking drone surveillance, high-definition fixed cameras, and biometric databases through interconnected mobile command centers.
It also launched the African Security Cooperation Center, a coordination hub linking Moroccan police with security delegations from participating nations.
A high-level FBI delegation led by Douglas Olson, Director of Operations at the Field Intervention Services Division, visited Morocco from January 4 to 6 to study the model ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States. A British sports security delegation also traveled to Rabat during the tournament to review crowd-management protocols.
At 70, the DGSN’s trajectory reflects an institution balancing operational expansion with institutional reform – modernizing its tools, broadening its international footprint, and adjusting its domestic posture toward a more service-oriented model of policing.
Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) marked their own 70th anniversary on Thursday, with Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan presiding over a commemorative luncheon at the Officers’ Mess Club in Rabat.
In an Order of the Day addressed to officers and soldiers, King Mohammed VI called for accelerating modernization programs centered on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, digitalization, and applied scientific research.
The sovereign also ordered the launch of a 60,000-unit military housing plan over five years and the renovation of military hospitals in Rabat, Meknes, Errachidia, and Laayoune.
He pointed to the FAR’s coordinated evacuation of residents in Ksar El Kebir and the Gharb plain during severe flooding earlier this year, as well as the deployment of field hospitals in the mountainous provinces of Azilal, Al Haouz, and Midelt.
