The centralized data showed a total staff of 14,629 employees, made up of 8,760 people in the central apparatus and the Securitate Troops, plus 5,869 people in the territorial centers.
The communist-era political police had the most operatives in Bucharest and the largest cities, according to the economic, strategic, and political importance of each area. From an organizational and geographical perspective, the Securitate was divided into three major components: the central apparatus in Bucharest, the Securitate Troops, and the territorial structures in the counties and Bucharest Municipality.
The central apparatus had 6,023 personnel, representing 41.17% of the total. The Securitate Troops had 2,737 personnel, or 18.71%, while the territorial apparatus had 5,869 personnel, accounting for 40.12% of the total staff.
The general total also included civilian workers, approximately 1,200 people without military ranks. They handled technical, logistical, and administrative activities, from maintaining operational equipment and laboratories to transport, telecommunications, construction, printing, and secretarial work.
The capital was home to the Securitate’s main intelligence, technical, and analysis hub. This was where major espionage and counterespionage files, surveillance operations, and interceptions at the national level were handled.
Among the largest structures were Directorate IV – Military Counterintelligence, with 1,022 personnel, Special Unit “F” – Surveillance, with 745 personnel, and USLA – Special Unit for Antiterrorist Operations, with 772 personnel.
The Securitate Troops, with 2,737 personnel, represented the militarized component of the system. The units were deployed in several areas of the country and were tasked with guarding certain facilities and intervening in situations considered by the regime to be threats or crises.
The territorial apparatus had 5,869 personnel. Of these, 557 worked in the Securitate of Bucharest Municipality, the largest territorial structure in the country. The 40 county inspectorates had a combined 5,312 personnel, with an average of approximately 132 people per county. The staffing levels, however, varied considerably depending on the economic and strategic importance of the region.
At the central level, there were structures specialized in domestic intelligence, economic counterintelligence, counterespionage, interceptions, surveillance, and correspondence control. Special Unit “T,” responsible for interceptions and wiretapping, had 466 employees, while Special Unit “F,” tasked with surveillance and observation, had 745. Special Unit “S,” which controlled correspondence, had 356 employees.
The documents also allowed researchers to compile an analysis of the gender structure within the Securitate. In September 1988, 2,297 women worked in the Securitate, representing 15.70% of the total number of employees. There were 954 women in the central apparatus, 254 in the Securitate Troops, and 1,089 in the territorial structures.
Women’s access to leadership positions, however, was extremely limited. Across the entire apparatus, only 22 women held leadership positions: 11 in the central apparatus and 11 in the territory. There were no women in leadership positions in the Securitate Troops.
The data from September 1988 outlined a sizeable security apparatus, with 14,629 employees nationwide. Almost 60% of them were in the central apparatus and the Securitate Troops, while the territorial structures accounted for 40.12% of the total.
The figures come as Romania still struggles to deal with its communist past, nearly 37 years after the fall of the repressive regime. Many figures of note in politics, the justice system, and other sectors of Romanian society had connections to the Securitate and retained prominent roles even after the fall of the regime.
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