NCJ Number
130027
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: (April 1991) Pages: 56-60
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
U.S. military police roles include battlefield control and circulation, security, prisoner of war operations, and law enforcement and the law enforcement function can interact with or transition into the other roles.
Abstract
The Army's view of military police functions has changed and evolved. In 1963, training was geared primarily toward law enforcement. Currently, 60 percent of training is devoted to combat support functions and 40 percent to law enforcement. Military police are frequently employed when foreign countries need assistance. As a policing unit, military police are acceptable to local governments and populations where an airborne infantry unit or an armored battalion would not be. When military police patrol with local police or provide security, what they see, hear, and are told helps in evaluating a situation. Nearly every law enforcement agency in the United States probably has former military police as members. Military police frequently assist civilian police in drug investigations. They also cooperate with criminal police in foreign countries such as Germany's Baden-Wurttemberg police force in Heidelberg. The possibility exists that military police will provide training to requesting civilian police agencies in the future.