Did you know the MP Corps is moving towards community policing?

On the internet I found a definition for Community Policing (CP) which states: 1.A police strategy for fostering trust in a community in the effort to enhance crime prevention, in which officers hold regular meetings with community organizations and patrol on foot or on bikes to develop personal relationships with community members.

The Army is moving towards community policing because the Army wants to move the role of the MP into a public servant type of role who is understanding, caring, and ready to donate their time to SMs in need for any reasons which I hope to yield things like crime prevention, and good public relations. With the withdraw of Soldiers from Iraq you might have noticed a lot more military police Soldiers performing law enforcement (LE)operations instead of Department of the Army civilian police officers. Our MPs are moving from a war time combat zone operations to LE operations and with that said, it comes with a new perspective or outlook in terms or working with the general public being non MPs to include civilians on Army installations. With working with the public, MPs must be a different type of Soldier but at the same time, keep a tactical state of mind for certain situations in terms of safety for themselves, and the public. We have to be servants to the public, caretakers of Soldiers who are not a position to police up themselves in the absent of a NCO support channel or a member of the chain of command (CoC), we have to try to keep civil matters civil and professional, and when leave the public with something in mind: those MPs were tactful, professional and they treated me like a human being.

On a personal side, MPs are hated by some SMs because they do not believe they were treated fairly, or they were treated wrongfully by an MP or they received a citation they do not believe they earned. I, and many others far above my pay grade want to change the way SMs and others look at MPs. Before every shift, I brief my MPs on how they should interact with individuals for just about every type of situation from civil matters, barking dog complaints to shop lifters at the PX. In addition, I want my MPs to give their time to curious individuals like parents and children who want to know why we carry certain tools on duty belts of which I refer as a "batman belt" to children or why we can't detain a neighbor with a noisy dog or explaining why we are observing the rights of the accused to a victim of a serious crime.

Does this mean military police Soldiers need to be people oriented? My answer is YES. The law enforcement duty is people and community oriented; MPs must know how to conduct themselves when interacting with the public. Even when performing traffic stops, there is a great opportunity to perform community policing. In closing, I want to leave this: MPs are professionals and we are public servants when one of us falls out of that scope, I will be quick and fair to correct their conduct.