In 2003, the National Police consisted of nine specialised divisions responsible for border control, administrative affairs, police training, anti-drug trafficking efforts, logistics and human resources, national security, criminal investigations, public safety, and urban counter-terrorism. Reports of widespread violence and looting carried out by heavily armed militants in recent years have led to the formation of a tenth division specifically for countering banditry. This was the first civil police unit trained and equipped to paramilitary standards in the Central African Republic's history, as well as the only one allowed to reissue any weapons it confiscated. Aside from the anti-banditry component, few of the other police divisions carried firearms in 2003, reflecting the longstanding trend since independence for an unarmed, largely non-militarised force.