In December 2011, Timoney was hired by the Ministry of the Interior of Bahrain. The appointment came during the pro-democracy Bahraini uprising, leading to speculation from "The New York Times" that he had been hired to teach his "Miami model" of protest dispersal, involving "heavy use of concussion grenades, pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets and baton charges." Timoney stated in an interview with NPR's Robert Siegel that protests in Bahrain were banned and forcibly dispersed because of traffic concerns created by narrow streets, which made safe protest, anywhere in the capital of Manama, impossible. This explanation was echoed the following day by the Ministry of the Interior's official Twitter feed.