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WhoWasInCommand.com is our free to use, public database of security force units and organizational structures, command personnel and areas of operation.
Security Force Monitor supports human rights researchers, litigators and investigative journalists working to make state security forces more accountable.
We are a non-profit research group that analyzes thousands of public records to create a simple searchable database of the commanders and the command structures, locations, and areas of operations of security force units and investigate their potential connections to alleged human rights violations.
How we work
Open Source research & data
We conduct open source research and publish detailed information about the command structures of the police, military and other branches of state controlled security forces around the world.
Supporting your investigations
We provide research, technical and data analysis support to human rights researchers, litigators and investigative journalists.
Latest news from Security Force Monitor
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Data update: Detailed sourcing for our database of 255,007 U.S. foreign military trainings
The U.S. Government is years late with two reports to Congress about which foreign armies it trained between 2021 and 2023. We usually turn these annual reports into data for you. Because there’s no new data, we’ve made some improvements to the existing dataset for you.
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Under Whose Command? Myanmar Army Chain of Command and Allegations of Abuse
Today we launched a new report “Under Whose Command?” which reveals for the first time, the chain of command of the Myanmar Army over twelve years and the connections from senior army commanders to hundreds...
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Methodology: Connecting US Sales to the Saudi-Emirati Led Coalition
This methodology guide is a companion piece to the joint Washington Post Security Force Monitor investigation into U.S. support for the Saudi-Emirati led coalition. The Post-SFM joint investigation shows that only 39 air force units from coalition countries could have conducted airstrikes in Yemen, and that during seven years of war the U.S. approved contracts that likely benefited 38 of the 39 airstrike units.
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New data on security and defence forces of Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad added to WhoWasInCommand.com
We have added extensive data on the organizational structure and command personnel of the security and defence forces of Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger to WhoWasInCommand. With this update WhoWasInCommand now covers all the states of the G5 Sahel along with the Force conjointe transfrontalière du G5 Sahel, a joint transnational counter-terror operation launched in July 2017.