LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS
Military police law enforcement operations help the commander keep his command combat ready and combat efficient. The enforcement of military laws, orders, and regulations is a function of command. Commanders, by enforcing laws and regulations, ensure order and discipline. Each commander is responsible for maintaining order and discipline in his unit.
Leaders are the key to order and discipline. From on-the-spot corrections to referrals for action under the Manual for Courts-Martial, leaders execute their responsibilities through the chain of command. To assist the chain of command, MP are empowered by division, corps, and echelons-above-corps commanders to exercise control over soldiers who violate military laws, orders, and regulations. MP at all levels support the commander in his responsibility for command and control by ensuring that his directives are complied with.
Sometimes it is not in the commander's best interest to employ MP assets specifically on law enforcement operations. Yet even then MP efforts continue to reduce the opportunity for crime. All MP missions contribute to the preservation of law and order. Law enforcement is an implied factor in all MP operations. In the course of any operation MP perform, MP operate in a manner and with intent to encourage support and to enforce the commander's discipline and military law.
Even in a theater of operations when the intensity of battle dictates the need to concentrate MP efforts on combat support operations, the opportunity for crime is nonetheless reduced as a result of MP missions. MP battlefield combat support operations and peacetime law enforcement operations use many of the same measures. Sometimes the purpose for using the measures is the same. TCPs and checkpoints are used on and off the battlefield to help ensure critical personnel, equipment, and supplies arrive where they are needed. Sometimes the purposes for using the measures differ. In a peacetime environment, MP use physical security measures to reduce the opportunity for crime. In a theater of operations, the measures are used to protect critical facilities and supplies from the enemy. Yet the measures still suppress the opportunity for crime. (Battlefield uses for traffic control and physical security measures are discussed in FM 19-4 under Battlefield Circulation Control and Area Security.)
It is, however, recognized that most MP efforts that directly enforce laws and support order are undertaken mainly in a peacetime environment. These efforts include both proactive and reactive measures. MP undertake and support preventive programs to remove conditions promoting crime and to reduce opportunities allowing crime. MP enforcement efforts encourage voluntary compliance by all personnel with laws, orders, regulations, and directives of the commander.
Military law enforcement is best served by achieving the greatest compliance with rules with the least amount of punitive action. MP accomplish much at potential trouble spots by encouraging law-abiding persons to cooperate actively in helping fellow soldiers act properly. Friends and buddies are encouraged to remove troublemakers from the scene. And proprietors are encouraged to call MP when there may be disorders. But when necessary, MP undertake active enforcement measures. MP take immediate action to halt crimes in progress, to apprehend perpetrators, and to aid victims. MP undertake enforcement measures that range from conducting raids and seizing illegal drugs to patrolling roadways and regulating traffic.
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