[6] The origins of the Civil Guard date back to 1873, when President Manuel Pardo approved and signed two Supreme Decrees on December 31 of 1873 (published in El Peruano, the Peruvian Government's official newspaper, on January 28, 1874) and March 23, 1874, respectively, providing for its creation.

[7] It also refers to "urban and rural stations and of the Regular Police Force divided into Gendarmerie and the Civil Guards, respectively", thus the decrees formally marked the birth of the service.

[8] On November 9, 1874, President Manuel Pardo opened the Civil Guard Instruction School, formed by a company of 50 men in the basis of the Battalion of Infantry Gendarms of Lima, its first cadets.

[6] A Spanish mission approved by King Alfonso XIII was sent to Lima with the purpose of providing full assistance in the modernization and reorganization of the police forces, working with veterans of the old Civil Guard and the remainder of what was then the National Gendarmerie.

[10][6] After arriving and having been received by the President, the mission started organizing the reform of the police forces, delivering within a month of their arrival, the documentation on January 21, 1922, having presented to President Leguía and the Minister for Police 14 bills that comprised the complete plan of reorganization of the state security forces were by then a topic of discussion in the National Congress.

This study was approved no less than the President himself, who considered the plan proposed in the 14 projects mentioned, in order for the development of the national economy and to improve the security situation.

[10] After the creation of the School due to the Supreme Decree of July 3, 1922, there were first and a very careful recruitment of qualified personnel for the installation of the campus, getting the nomination very honorable and excellent military history for the kind of Captains, Lieutenants and Ensigns to be commissioned.

A plaque was unveiled by the presiding officers to commemorate the occasion of its formal opening, and the first Corps of Cadets performed its first march past.

[10] As part of the opening a giant sign was made in the school entrance with the words of the Civil Guard motto, El honor es su divisa como la madre patria (Honor is its emblem with the mother country), made by no less than President Leguía himself who adapted to Peru the Spanish Civil Guard motto.

[10] The strength of the first class of graduates from the Police Academy, addressed to the Commissioners for Lima, constituted the State Security Corps and the first Corps of Cadets were made up of:[6] Thanks to the Spanish mission to Peru of the Spanish Civil Guard, Peru had professional civil security forces for the first time.

The baptism of fire for the new Security Corps came with the death of two personnel from the service on May 26, 1924, while on a routine mission in Villa de Olaya.

[11] The August 18, 1924 decree established the 1st Joint Command of the Civil Guard, with an Infantry Battalion, composed of two companies, and a Cavalry Squadron (formed on the basis of the former mounted police).

Then, these units were spread throughout Peru, with the names of the Security Battalions of the North, Central and South, with offices in Trujillo, Arequipa and La Oroya respectively.

In their honor and of all others who died while in service, a memorial cenotaph was opened in the Police and Civil Guard Academy courtyard in the following month.

Through a presidential decree of President Dr. José Luis Bustamante y Rivero on September 15, 1948, the Minister for Police Doctor Julio Cesar Villegas Cerro issued a resolution granting the autonomy and functional independence of the Investigations and Surveillance Corps (CIV) and establishing the Directorate for Investigations and Surveillance as the top command under the Ministry of Government and Police.

In 1949, President of the Republic Army Divisional General Don Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti elevated the Directorate of Research and Monitoring to the category of a full general Directorate, by now an autonomous unit of the Civil Guard, with its own ranks and departments, with the creation of a fiscal investigations unit done in 1950.

In the same year a full police mobile unit was formed in the Civil Guard as the motorized security force under LTCOL Isaac Ingunza Apolinario, CG.

In the fall of 1956, Cadet 1st Class Teófilo Aliaga Salazar from the DC visited the Minister of Government and the Interior Dr. Jorge Fernández Stoll, about the unfair practices of the Police Academy towards its detective trainees.

Low salaries and a particular incident where a subordinate of the Civil Guard publicly was insulted and slapped by the Head of the Military House, General Enrique Ibáñez Burga, for failing to comply with his orders of not allowing journalists to approach the President's vehicle, led to protests and strikes in the Peruvian capital.

These events became known as the Limazo, and led to even more discontent, bringing about the downfall of Alvarado's government in a coup d'état in 1980 known as the Tacnazo, organized by General Francisco Morales Bermúdez.

The objectives sought were, among others, to integrate the three police forces to make better use of economic resources, eliminate the conflict that existed between them caused by "double role" problems and, above all, provide better services to society.

[17][18] The 1960s saw the creation of 'Antisubversive Squadrons', which were counter-terrorist groups which saw action during a 1965 guerrilla campaign against insurgents from the Revolutionary Left Movement based in Huancavelica.

[20] Horacio Patiño Cruzatti [es], a Civil Guard Major who was killed along with his squad by insurgents during the conflict, became a hero and a martyr to police forces.

[6] The anthem of the Civil Guard was written in 1938 by Angélica Pagaza Galdo, with lyrics by Dr. Marcial de la Puente Dianderas.

Civil Guards, in a hymn of glory Let us praise our noble mission; satisfied with being what we are, the great warriors of abnegation.