Military Police

Military Police, any of various law enforcement and guard units of the United States military services, serving chiefly to protect military personnel, safeguard military property, and assist in maintaining discipline through the enforcement of laws, orders, and regulations. A supervisory military police officer, as on a post or in a command, is called a provost marshal. Military police organizations include the Military Police Corps, serving the U.S. Army; the shore patrol, serving the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard; the U.S. Marine Corps Military Police, serving the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps; the Security Police, serving the U.S. Air Force; and the combined Armed Forces Police.

The Military Police Corps, besides enforcing military regulations and orders for the Department of the Army, assists other component agencies of the Department of Defense, as when it provides support during joint armed forces operations. It also operates and manages U.S. army confinement facilities, provides installation security, and, in time of war, guards prisoners of war, provides traffic control and convoy escort, and participates in infantry operations when necessary. At staff level the provost marshal general has responsibility for law and order throughout the army and oversees all provost marshal and military police activities.

Within the U.S. Navy, discipline and law and order functions are the responsibility of each separate command. Law enforcement is primarily provided by fully trained military police officers called master at arms. While a ship is in port, the master at arms are augmented by a shore patrol selected from the ship's personnel to aid civil police in maintaining order among sailors. The U.S. Coast Guard uses shore patrol in the same manner. Investigations of felonies, counterintelligence activity, and security matters for the Department of the Navy, however, are performed by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigation Service, a federal agency which is not part of the Navy.

The Security Police are specially trained personnel of the U.S. Air Force responsible for the enforcement of law and the protection of air force property and personnel. A primary duty of the Security Police is base and aircraft security. During hostilities, they are used for perimeter and internal air base defense.

The Armed Forces Police, functioning in large cities where two or more armed forces are concerned with the welfare and conduct of their personnel within the civilian community, is a combined organization of enforcement personnel from the two or more concerned services. These units work closely with local civilian police.