Federal Restrictions on using U.S. MPs for law enforcement on foreign soil
Please excuse the long title.
I am doing some research on SSTR and have a question regarding using U.S. MPs in a law enforcement roll outside the US. I have been told that there is a federal restriction on using MPs in such a roll. Does anyone know if this it true and where the restriction originates from?
Thanks
Restrictions on military policing
To the best of my knowledge and experience (in Post Conflict Panama and the training mission in El Salvador), other than the SOFA, restictions involve training of local police under Section 660 D of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 as amended. Under that provision, US military forces are prohibited from training local police without a specific waiver. That waiver was forthcoming in El Salvador but not in Panama. However, under international law, forces occupying a country (de jure or de facto) are required to provide law and order, among other things like food, water, medecine, sanitation, and government. Panama was a case of de facto occupation. Initially, infantry from the 193rd brigade policed Panama's streets. (I well remember the brigade commander, COL Mike Snell, urging me to get Panama's prison and night courts up and running so he could get his troops out of the policing business! :wry:) Later, we had MPs conducting joint patrols with the newly raised Panama National Police and we (US forces) conducted the initial training program for them. We were soon told that 660 D applied and that PNP training was the responsibility of the DOJ ICITAP (International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program). Since ICITAP had trouble getting off the ground we were permitted/encouraged by Ambassador Deane Hinton to continue to "monitor and advise" the PNP. This became a SF job - both AC and RC (the RC SF were cops in civilian life and were paired with AC SF teams). More can be found in my April 1992 SSI monograph, "The Fog of Peace: Planning and Executing the reconstruction of Panama" also published by Praeger as the first part of CIVIL MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE NEW WORLD in 1997.
Cheers
JohnT
JohnT and 660 (almost rhymes)
John,
Thanks, exactly the type of thing I was looking for. Looked up the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and it appears that it does not restrict money to be used for police training in a post-conflict environment. Knew about ICITAP but they seem very small and underfunded, although a great resource.
You are way too charitable...
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Originally Posted by
TheCurmudgeon
... Sometimes what we do makes no sense.
It's the American way... :wry:
Shop for Cops at the Cop Shop...
Exempting the FBI who should be left alone; they have enough they won't be able to do. Cops can't catch terrorists because Cops play too nice and have a follow the law mindset -- that is a good thing -- gotta set a thief to catch a thief. Cops can train people to look for terrs; then the trainees will figure out the rest of it...
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Originally Posted by
TheCurmudgeon
I don't believe that it is, but even so, it is better than using Armor or Artillery officers to train the Iraqi Police.
Amen to that...
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...If you train for the mission you can do it in the same way you train the infantry for war without actually having a training war going on all the time.
And that.
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Being in high demand does not always equate to using them in the most efficent manner.
That, too...
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I will agree that my preference would be to use reserve/guard MPs whose civilian job is as a police officer. This is particularly true with MTT teams. However, no one else seems to think that way.
However, gotta disagree on that one -- I think the same way, and I know others do as well. It is not the best option but it is the best achievable and the cheapest option (cheap in more than just the cost aspect).
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I don't think your thoughts are shallow, I just think that the mission could be done once someone decided to do it.
True, he exresses valid concerns but the alternatives are not good -- we've tried most and the just do not work. Or we can dither and stew about it for a few years while doing nothing. That, too is the American way... :D
Heh. Given the number of years
possessed, I'd say the old Pennsylvania Dutch saying is more appropriate; "Ve are too zoon oldt und too late schmart..." :o
Slap, I was afraid of that...
Once again, that leaves us with the problem of how to get good police training for national police forces without (1) denuding active departments, (2) outsourcing to the private sector, and (3) achieving consistency of quality and SOPs among the police trainers.Each local department has its own rules and ways of doing business.
We could, of course, let the RCMP, Carabinieri, French Gendarmerie, or Chilean Carabineros take on the job. But what if we have to do it? who do we do it with and how best to make them (whoever They are) part of the mission under the same command?
Cheers
JohnT
PS the police advisor in el Salvador was an MP Major:)
Some thoughts on all that, Sam...
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Originally Posted by
selil
The capability is not there. Law enforcement is much more than force, and and more importantly MP's are trained to deal with a homogeneous population and the civilian world is a heterogeneous population.
Guess it depends on the perspective. Given a unit in a combat environment, yes, true. Given a typical state side or overseas post or base with more dependents than troops and a slew of Civilian employees, not so much. Post MPs get as many domestics as do city cops -- maybe more...
They get the full gamut of civilian law enforcement issues and the population they serve is not nearly as homogeneous as many think. Neither are the crimes. I've seen MPs and / or the CID deal with everything from auto theft to rape to embezzlement to homicide, suicide and incest -- and most things in between and involving civilian employees of contractors, males, females and kids, troops, visitors on post, traveling salesmen and Pizza delivery drivers.
Most Posts and Bases are a fairly accurate reflection of an American city and most crimes are handled by delivery to the local criminal courts or to a Federal Magistrate -- wherein the MPs get to testify just as do my two sons who are city cops today (and they have the same problems with the Attorneys -- both sides).
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MP's have limited skills in civilian law enforcement, and CID agents are non-scalable...
Limited with respect to young initial entry MPs, not true with respect to those who've been around a few years. The CID folks are surprisingly well rounded and tend to work more white collar and general crim stuff than many would think.
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...Civilian law enforcement is done by civilians. If the problem is not enough police on foreign soil then fix that problem. Don't just expand the mission or tactical envelope.
Agreed, the issue is how you get that expansion going, not applying US MPs to it.
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Whether you were standing in front of a judge or not doesn't necessarily make it legal. The law as a concrete set of rules is a legal fiction. As an example since the inception of the Patriot Act (and associated prosecutions) it has been continuously disassembled in the court system. This is an example of the issues between military and civilian law enforcement. The current para-militarization of the civilian law enforcement eloquently exposes many of the problems (including 1 in 100 people in America are incarcerated or under court mandated supervision).
Agree also with that -- but again, it doesn't answer the problem of training a host nation's police and / or para military police to do their jobs which is the issue on the thread. We do not need para military police here and IMO, the SWAT-ization is vastly overdone; other nations may not be that fortunate.
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A host of court cases from Miranda to Terry to Oliphant and on and on have shown that police actions within policy are not necessarily legal.
As to solving the problem of not enough police on foreign soil. Law enforcement can only be effective when it is seen to be functioning as part of a legitimate government entity.
Also true -- again, the problem is how you get there...
I agree with you totally.
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"The key piece though is that you can't possibly enact MP's as law enforcement on a foreign land as they won't have proper culture, tools, or understanding (maybe my reasons might be off but I think the issues are valid).
with only the caveat that in a pure occupation, you have to use them for that; other than that for all the reasons you cite and more it has to be an absolute no-no.
The thread was started with the question of using US MPs for law enforcement on foreign soil -- maybe I missed something but unless it is a pure occupation (which Iraq was not, even if the US Government foolishly said it was no matter how briefly) it is a totally bad idea and bound to be illegal unless there is, as Tom Said, a SOFA which defines the (generally very narrow) scope wherein MPs may operate. I sorta thought the consensus was that it shouldn't be done and that John capped that with the references and his comment on the issue.
The thread morphed -- my fault -- into using select Guard and Reserve MP units specifically to train host nation paramilitary elements. I specifically used Guard and Reserve because those units are full of working Cops. I also said that the elements they trained should be the paramilitary internal security folks -- NOT the civil cops, those should devolve to US Aid and contractors -- as is being done now by MPRI and DynCorp (LINK), both of whom want civilian cops with full Academy training and generally five or more years street or road experience and fully certified (to include extra certifications like fire arms instructor etc.) and they generally exclude MP service from consideration.
I also agree that the government concerned must be legitimate but, as you said, if we're talking COIN that may (or may not) be a problem.
Looking forward to your post.
My preference to train foreign forces is
nearly always SF in the FID role. The problem comes when there are not enough SF or the SF do not have the specialized skills required - or both. In that case, there was a concept from the 60s and 70s called the SAF - later modified to a FID Augmentation Force (FIDAF) that provides an appropriate organizational structure. Essentially, it would integrated SF and MPs for LE training sort of a modification of what was done by MILGP El Sal and the RC Cops in Panama. How this would be put together requires adapability and imagination.
Cheers
JohnT