Military Police

SPRING 2016

Military Police contains information about military police functions in maneuver and mobility support, area security, law and order, internment/resettlement, and police intelligence operations.

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Spring 2016 53 lightly, but deployment-specifc support and communication equipment are essential to mission accomplishment and should not be removed from the packing list. The fnal remaining organic military police personnel in the BCT are the provost marshal's offce (PMO) cadre, who comprise a primary staff section that directly supports DATE operations. Responsible for the planning and use of attached military police combat power, the provost marshal (PM) is in a unique position to enhance or degrade the repu- tation of the Military Police Regiment in the eyes of the BCT commander. The PM's isolation from the Regiment requires an extensive knowledge of military police doctrine and the operations process. The PM must also have extensive knowledge of the BCT staff. An inability to articulate the ca- pabilities and limitations of assets and explain how they can support the mission will quickly discredit a primary staff offcer. The BCT PM who has not had the beneft of com- pany command is very susceptible to this pitfall. A consis- tent pattern of underperformance by precommand PMs has emerged at JRTC. This is due in part to inexperience, but is also a consequence of failing to establish a relationship or share training events with the attached military police com- pany before the rotation. Mutual training in preparation for JRTC would allow the PM to better understand the capa- bilities and limitations of the military police company and reduce some of the friction of planning missions. Failing to achieve a good understanding of military police support and the subsequent minimization of the PMO role on the staff negatively affects attached military police combat power. Although not in direct control of attached military police Soldiers, the PM is responsible for participating in the BCT military decisionmaking process to plan military police missions to support each phase of the opera- tion. Security and mobility support and detention operations are the standard mission sets within a DATE scenario at JRTC. An effective PM comes to the process armed with accurate and detailed staff estimates and uses an understanding of the military police forces available to plan appropri- ate, sustainable missions that enable the main ef- fort. Once military police missions are planned, the PM must focus on sustainment. Historically, BCT PMs have struggled to proactively plan for sustainment needs, such as combat-confgured loads of Class IV building materials for the de- tainee collection point (DCP) and food, fuel, and shelter for the military police company. Junior military police leaders historically struggle to clearly articulate to the BCT how military police skills can assist the other war- fghting functions. If military police leaders are unable to use doctrinal terms and refer- ences when explaining what they bring to the fght, they immediately lose respect and credibility and are generally not given a proper mission set that aligns with their unique skills in support of the BCT mission. Examples of pertinent military police doctrine in- clude Field Manual (FM) 3-39, Military Police Operations; Army Techniques Publication (ATP) 3-39.10, Police Op- erations; ATP 3-39.20, Police Intelligence Operations; ATP 3-39.30, Security and Mobility Support; and FM 3-63, Detainee Operations. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Military police support to BCTs is relatively new, result- ing from the transition of brigade special troops battalions to brigade engineer battalions. Despite the recent change, there appears to be an emerging norm in how military po- lice are task-organized in the BCT. Most brigades assign military police elements to the BEB, and the BCT staff then sends military police-specifc missions, such as detainee op- erations and security and mobility support, through them. When they are not assigned to a BEB, military police el- ements are dynamically retasked in direct support of the main effort during a particular phase of the operation and the same direct tasking relationship applies. When BCT battalions receive a military police element as an attach- ment, they are surprised at the amount of frepower and mobility the element possesses. The battalions usually add battalion security missions on top of BCT-directed military police-specifc missions. The number of missions usually leads to an overuse of military police elements compared to other organic and attached elements. Battalions historically have trouble supporting and sustaining military police units due to shortages of personnel and the deployment equip- ment. The dispersion of military police across the battle- feld stresses the ability of a battalion to exercise mission Soldiers of the 21st Military Police Company (Airborne) conduct sustained airborne training as they prepare to conduct a joint forcible entry into JRTC.

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