As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control, maintaining public safety, counter-terrorism.

[2] Armed rural constabulary (XirXiran) supported this force by bringing offenders to court, guarding prisoners, patrolling townships, and accompanying nomadic tribesmen over grazing areas.

[citation needed] However, such reform cannot be carried out without the substantial support of the international community, as the Somali government does not have yet the sufficient financial means to achieve this objective.

[citation needed] Stig Jarle Hansen argued in 2007 that although the UNDP was financially supported by the governments of the United States and Norway, it repeatedly failed to ensure payment to the Somalia police force that it at the time provided training to.

He suggests that this led to a high desertion rate of over 100%, as a majority of unpaid TFG policemen and soldiers abandoned their posts after only a few months before defecting.

The UNDP's unsuccessful rule of law project and TFG policies created a situation whereby the soldiers who remained in service then resorted to pillaging and theft to sustain themselves, and squabbled over the little funds that were earmarked for them.

[8] In June 2011, the Somali Police Force was given the responsibility of security in Km 4, Guriga Shaqalaha, Isgoyska Dabka and Makka Almukara road.

[citation needed] According to Police Commissioner Maya, the SPF expected to have an independent, fully established and well-equipped force following the end of the transitional period in August 2012.

A total of 4,463 Somali Police Force officers were registered in Mogadishu using the biometric registration system, completing the registration for the capital.As of August 2014, the Federal Government of Somalia is engaged in capacity-rebuilding for the SPF, with assistance provided by the U.S. Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the European Union Training Mission Somalia and the United Nations Mine Action Service.

UNDP continued to disburse stipends for the Somali Police Force until 31 December 2015, through the support of the Government of Japan and the European Union.

[2] By the late 1970s, the SPF was carrying out an array of missions, including patrol work, traffic management, criminal investigation, intelligence gathering, and counter-insurgency.

[2] The Criminal Investigation Department is fully part of the Somali Police Force and is essentially present in Mogadishu headquarters with some 180 officers (and 27 in the stations).

[13] The objective of the Program is to enhance the investigation capacity of the Somali Police Force and CID, both at the Federal and Federal Member State level, to investigate serious and organized crime in accordance with international treaty obligations and standards, including the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto..[14] The SPF is currently only one of the two southern Somali institutions which has legal authority for maritime law enforcement, the other being the Somali Navy, up to 200 Nautical miles from the coastline, and has tried to maintain its maritime law enforcement role.

Six long-range patrol vessels (LRPVs) were ordered from Atlantic Marine and Offshore Group in July 2013 as part of a larger contract to build up the Somali Coast Guard.

[16] In Mogadishu the Atlantic Marine and Offshore Group were reported to be planning to establish an operational base, including a ship repair facility.

Traffic officers do operate in conditions that are not to underestimate as they are visible beacons of the authority, against whom Al Shabaab has directed specific threats in the past.

[2] This Special Operations Command Battalion known as Ciidanka Booliska Gaarka ah ee Haramcad in Somali (Cheetah Unit), was inaugurated in March 2019 after the first company of 120 police cadets of a force that is envisage to number between 600 and 800 men, graduated from the Mountain Commando School and Training Center, in Isparta Turkey in February 2019.

Hailemariam Desalegn pledged his administration's continued support for the peace and stabilization efforts in Somalia, as well as its preparedness to assist in initiatives aiming to build up the Somali security forces through experience-sharing and training.

[19] In August 2014, the Somali and U.S. governments reached an agreement in Washington, D.C. stipulating that the United States would contribute $1.9 million toward security sector reform, development and capacity-building efforts in Somalia.

It is primarily slated to provide support to the Somali National Police Force's Criminal Investigative Division (CID), with an emphasis on implementing policies, practices and procedures that buttress citizen services and human rights.

[20] In January 2015, Foreign Affairs Minister of Somalia Abdirahman Duale Beyle and a Turkish delegation signed a bilateral treaty in Mogadishu pertaining to police support.