The fine manual says that when row_security is set to off, "queries fail
which would otherwise apply at least one policy". However, a look at
check_enable_rls() says that that is a true statement only when the user
is not table owner. If the user *is* table owner, turning off
row_security seems to amount to just silently disabling RLS, even for
tables with FORCE ROW LEVEL SECURITY.
I am not sure if this is a documentation bug or a code bug, but it
sure looks to be one or the other.
Meanwhile, there's a statement about row_security in ddl.sgml that is so
vague as to be nearly meaningless, but it doesn't seem to quite match
either of those interpretations. I'm in the midst of copy-editing that
section and will make it match what the code actually does at the moment,
but we'll have to change it again if this is deemed a code bug.
regards, tom lane