At the local level, a large number of unarmed, untrained, and locally recruited Zairians still perform basic police tasks in support of local authorities. Their numbers totaled nearly 30,000 in 1993, according to some sources. Nevertheless, some local areas had virtually no police left because they lacked funding to pay them. Where police were present, their local activities typically were not coordinated with the national police elements, and they probably were neither capable of nor motivated to support national or regional security objectives.

Local and regional authorities have the power to arrest and impose fines, and in many cases they exercise these powers with the help of local police. But local police are underpaid (if they are paid at all) and tend to extort their living from the citizens.

Data as of December 1993