Military Police

FALL 2015

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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38 MILITARY POLICE By Major Maurice Green F or each military police leader who professes that re- moving military police platoons from brigade combat teams (BCTs) is a bad idea, another military police leader argues that placing military police platoons in BCTs was a bad idea in the frst place. Regardless of your position in this debate, given the extremely high demand for military police support during the past decade of sustained (arguably one of the highest in Military Police Corps his- tory), the ability of military police Soldiers to enable BCTs is more evident than ever. During the past decade, the mili- tary police force structure has increased at percentages un- matched by any other branch. The aim of this article is not to defend or proclaim the relevance of military police Sol- diers, but to highlight the facts that illustrate the signif- cance of the support which military police Soldiers provide to the BCT. Military Police Corps leaders have the inherent responsibility to ensure that they foster relationships within BCTs on their installations. This enables the Military Police Corps to sustain and increase interoperability among the BCTs. For most senior military police leaders, simply recogniz- ing the need to foster relationships with BCTs on the instal- lation is not the challenge. The challenge resides with their ability to establish and maintain an operational tempo that allows them to sustain interoperability with the BCT. This responsibility is tied to their commitment to establishing meaningful relationships within the BCTs on their instal- lations. However, there are some external friction points that can only be resolved by the actions of the most senior Military Police Corps leaders and leaders of the U.S. Army Forces Command. To clarify: Up to this point, there has been no success- ful effort by leaders to synchronize the operational tempo or deployments of military police units within BCTs on their installations. This lack of effort directly contributes to the inability of military police battalions to establish a habitual relationship between the combat support military police companies and BCTs on their installations. Instead, ad hoc relationships are created to support specifc training events, such as combat training center rotations or culminating training events at home stations. Such ad hoc relationships are undeniably effective to some degree; after all, that is how military police unit deployments were managed through- out the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and continue to be managed today. However, I believe that the decrease in the operational tempo, coupled with the removal of military police platoons from the BCTs, presents a unique opportu- nity—even a mandate—for leaders to act. Leaders must synchronize military police unit deploy- ments and the operational tempo with those of the BCTs on their installations. Moreover, leaders must commit to interoperability between military police units and BCTs. The initial step in forging such a commitment is to estab- lish habitual command relationships with each military police combat support company and BCT as well as military police combat support battalions and Regular Army divi- sions. For example, if the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) were assigned a mission that required a military police battalion or military combat support company, the 91st Military Police Battalion or one of its assigned units would deploy in support of that mission. Such a commitment not only sustains the interoperability gained between the Military Police Corps and the BCT over the past decade, it also allows the flling of the voids left by military police pla- toons with military police combat support companies. This remains the preferred course of action for many, especially those military police leaders who opposed placing military police platoons in the BCT. Major Green is the operations offcer for the 91st Military Police Battalion, Fort New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in justice South Carolina State University and degrees in business and organizational security - Webster University; resource Phoenix University, Phoenix, Arizona; and public -

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