### Military Police Training: Skills for Riot Control and Law Enforcement

Military police trainees prepare for riot control to ensure safety and readiness for potential emergencies.

### Training Future Military Police: Skills, Challenges, and Responsibilities
* 👮 Future military police soldiers are engaged in a riot-control drill, an essential skill they hope to **never utilize in real life**, highlighting the **importance of preparedness for rare but critical situations**.
* 🔫 The trainees are currently in a **10-week program**, where they learn to **handle stress and danger** in controlled environments, which is preferable to facing such challenges in a **correctional facility**.
* 📊 In 2022, the Army reported an average of **661 daily prisoners**, emphasizing the need for MPs who **enforce law and order** within military installations and prisons globally.
* 💵 As of 2024, entry-level military police earn approximately **$2,000 a month**, and their training includes practical exercises like a **night-infiltration event**, simulating **real combat scenarios**.
* ⚖ The curriculum incorporates the **Geneva Conventions** to ensure **humane treatment of detainees**, addressing historical abuses and reinforcing the importance of **ethical conduct in military policing**.
* 👥 The training also focuses on recognizing and overcoming biases, preparing MPs to treat individuals with **respect and dignity** regardless of their background.
* 🏋 MPs are trained to operate tactical vehicles and firearms, with an emphasis on **safe handling and effective communication**, which are crucial for their roles as both **law enforcement and combat-ready soldiers**.
* 🌍 The Military Police Corps is evolving, adapting to the changing needs of the Army while ensuring that installations remain **secure** and that MPs are prepared for both **law enforcement and combat operations**.

Instructor: Go! Trainees: One, two, three. Instructor: Take the line. You got to back up.
You're trying to fight. I'm telling you, you'll get popped. Narrator: These future
military police soldiers

are participating in a riot-control drill, a vital skill many hope
they'll never have to use. We don't have riots all the time. It doesn't happen often. However, when it does call for it, to experience a riot or
have to deal with it,

they're able to answer to it and do the things that they need to do. I'd rather them stressed out here than be stressed out at
the correctional facility. And it's the small things that could turn into the big things. He gets hit, this shield can cut your hand

or break your hand or pinch your hand, and you're out of the fight. Your focus is not on that hand, and then you'll get vulnerable, the shield's going to go down, and then they're going to
shank your ass in the neck.

You got me? Narrator: They're in the middle of their 10-week training program to become military
police soldiers, or MPs. So, the biggest one is
we're cage kickers, right? Glorified security guards.

I mean, I always heard that
MPs were the party killers. You're a snitch and stuff. Newsreel: Well, everybody
knows the job of the MP, the military policeman: to make life miserable
for the rest of the Army.

Narrator: Misconceptions aside, MPs operate in three different areas: policing, detention, and
security and mobility. We're protectors. We
protect the people on post. Narrator: They enforce
the law on Army posts

and in military prisons around the globe. We deal with the worst
of the worst criminals who were in uniformed services. Narrator: In 2022, the
Army reported an average of 661 daily prisoners in its facilities, former soldiers who have committed crimes

under military jurisdiction. Business Insider spent four
days at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri's Ozark region, where about 1,300 future
military police soldiers are training to protect
Army posts in the US and around the world. There are five military
occupational specialties,

or MOS's, for enlisted soldiers within the Military Police Corps. Commissioned military police
officers are 31 Alphas and lead the different MP MOS's. During our time at Fort Leonard Wood, we observed the training of 31 Bravos

and 31 Echos. In 2024, the base salary
for an entry-level MP started at about $2,000 a month. Before becoming soldiers and starting their MP
advanced individual training, trainees participate in a
night-infiltration event

known as NIC at night. We are coming in, we're
sneaking up on the enemy, because of course we're crawling, right? Kind of like the D-Day kind of thing. Storming the beach. Narrator: Trainees can only
crawl through the course

and toward the finish line under the cover of complete darkness. Occasionally, parachute
flares fly into the sky and illuminate the course. During this time, trainees freeze and remain still until darkness returns. But unlike other training scenarios, machine guns fire live
rounds over their heads.

A lot of them are 18 years old, so them experiencing live
rounds going over their head and having to experience this
can be very nerve-racking for somebody that's never
experienced it before. And then it's going to just
be our job to make sure

that they push through that fear, make sure they conquer that hill, and be able to keep pushing forward. And that fear shouldn't stop
them from reaching their goal. Narrator: After completing
basic combat training and becoming soldiers in the US Army,

students begin their
job-specific education, including five weeks of
law-enforcement instruction and scenario-based training, like riot control, which is done inside a mock
prison in Fort Leonard Wood. So, get your three, get
your three, get your three.

Narrator: Students are
preparing to learn a technique they can deploy during a prison riot. Next, we're going to have
a snatch-and-grab team. So you guys are going to
stack up on each other like a five-member team.

Basically it's a formation of a line conducting riot shields, and then there will be people behind them supporting that line. And then they have a snatch-and-grab team, which is a five-member team. You guys will come up to that line.

Come up. You will tap the shield wall. The shield wall will open up, the snatch-and-grab team will go out, no more than three people. As soon as that third
person crosses that line, they grab that inmate, they
pull them through the lines, 

and then the shield wall closes. Within that snatch-and-grab team, their roles and duties are, basically they are there to go and secure inmates from that line that are trying to obstruct
our line wall or objects. Trainees: Three steps forward!

Instructor: Go! Trainees: One, two, three. Narrator: After learning the technique, it's time to put it into action. Trainee: Get back, get back! Get back! Get back! Narrator: The riot shield serves

as their main point of protection. If held incorrectly, they risk harm to themselves
and the entire line. They have one arm through the shield. We have holders inside. And they have their
hands pretty much flat, trying to brace the shield. 

And they try to be in a
staggered stance and pretty much making themselves very tight to the line and
being able to maneuver. So, we're trying to test
the strength of the line whenever we're kicking
and snatching and whatnot. 

Also the technique of how
the correctional specialists are holding the riot shield. We teach them a way of how to brace and make sure that they're not
shield-checking the inmates, because they're not supposed to. So that's the main reason why
we're running up to the line, 

we're pushing, trying to
push through the line, kick the line, because we need to test out
the attention of that line. Narrator: The first few
attempts at the snatch and grab are unsuccessful. It's really intense, but, like, 

you're all there, you're
giggling a little bit. And then I had one of my battle
buddies, he was beside me, he's, like, 4-foot-11. So he's really short. 

And he got grabbed over his riot shield, and me and the girl beside
me were staring at each other like, oh, my God, what just happened? But you have to be able
to think on your feet. Narrator: Students are not only attempting 

to remove inmates from the riot, but also trying to clear large items that may be used against them. So, the riot-control training
is more or less a training that we use for the
worst-case scenarios, right? We haven't had a riot within
our facility since 2010, 

but we would rather train
up on these scenarios so we are ready for when that scenario may or may not happen. Narrator: The riot he's referring to happened at the US Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, 
Kansas, in August 2010. 

Two prisoners overtook a guard, stole his keys, and released
11 other inmates into the unit. They flooded it and made weapons
from brooms and table legs. The riot ended when a
special reaction team entered and subdued the rioters. 

There are six US Army
correctional facilities around the globe. There are three foreign facilities, in South Korea, Kuwait, and Germany; and two domestic medium-level facilities, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Fort Leavenworth,

which also contains the
US Disciplinary Barracks, the sole maximum-security military prison. Instructor: Tell me how it went. The drive team did pretty good getting the objects out of the way, especially in one instance where one of the instructors
stole one of the shields

and we took it back from them. So, you would rather train
and know the knowledge and have that knowledge
in your back pocket for when those scenarios do happen, right? You would want to know
that your people are ready to fight that battle
whenever it does come up.

It's really empowering to
be able to stand beside people that I've grown to know
as my brothers and sisters and know that I can hold my own and not get knocked over by someone that I'm absolutely, utterly terrified of. You're going to segregate
your detainee, OK?

And there's three basic categories
that the Army segregates. Raise your hand, please,
if you have an idea on how you can segregate
a group of people. Leann Hurth: So, gender.
He's correct, all right?

Hurth: So, when it comes to religion, she is correct, but it's
called affiliation. OK? What's the third way? OK, so, very close, OK, but you're going to separate your enlisted from your
officers, all right?

Narrator: MP students learn how
to properly handle detainees in a class called detainee operations. Hurth: We've provided a
restraint system to you. It's called the blue box and
belly chain restraint system. So we're going to apply this blue box

and belly chain restraint
system within the confines of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, OK? So pretty much when we apply this system, we have to do it properly, without harming our detainees. So that means we have to be
engaging our double locks

on our handcuffs and our leg restraints so that these do not
continue to tighten up our detainees' wrists
and ankles, all right? Narrator: The Geneva
Conventions are a key piece of the curriculum. Hurth: There are some
basics within that treaty.

Providing the three meals a day, ensuring you provide the medical
treatment to the detainees, ensuring you're not doing anything that would fall under torture or abuse. Narrator: An important reminder after the crimes committed
at Abu Ghraib prison

during the war in Iraq. Reporter: Who was
responsible for the abuse within Abu Ghraib prison? American soldiers acting
on their own accord, described by some within the Pentagon as "recycled hillbillies"? Or did it go to the very top

of the military and civilian leadership? Narrator: During the Iraq War,
11 US soldiers were charged with crimes committed against
detainees at Abu Ghraib. Seven of those soldiers
were military police, who were convicted of crimes
like dereliction of duty,

maltreating detainees, and assault. The lessons that we learned out of Abu Ghraib reminded us that we cannot turn a blind eye, that the spoils of war are not real when you start talking about humanity, whether they're enemy combatants

or whether they are our own citizens. We use scenario-based training to present really hard problems to our military police soldiers in training, so they can have practice making those good decisions and they can apply, as an example, their learning about the Geneva Conventions to real life

if they need to go and execute that on America's behalf. Hurth: Right bottom cargo pocket, you're going to put your belly chain. They're learning how to escort a detainee to a different destination. So that could be a medical appointment,

maybe another correctional facility, going through court proceedings. So they're going to apply what's known as a blue box and belly chain restraint system. They put that on ensuring they do the double locks, and then we go through how to actively escort that detainee

to the new location that they need to be at. Narrator: Students pat down the detainees, checking for any weapons or contraband. Hurth: So, the first time, it just depends on the comfortability they have with handcuffing.

I would say that's one of the biggest things, because it's sometimes one of the first times they're coming into close contact with somebody who is role-playing as a detainee. So we try to practice several times before they apply that system,

because that is one of
the most dangerous parts, is applying the handcuffs. Just because at the
time prior to applying, that individual is un-handcuffed, you don't know the prior training or experience of your detainee. So you always want to ensure
for the safety of the guard

that you're applying it correctly, you're showing and displaying that you're confident in your abilities. Handcuffs are a little
confusing sometimes. Um, hold on. It's not closing all the way. Narrator: While some students struggle

using handcuffs for the first time, other students are more
familiar with the restraints. My family's in corrections. Yeah, it's pretty weird.
It's a weird feeling. What if I told you it wasn't my first?

No, I'm playing, I'm playing. No. I've had it happen before. Honestly, yeah. Yeah, I would say so, probably. I signed up for 31 Bravo.
Something like that. I asked him, like, can
you show me how to do it?

And he showed me. Step forward. See if you can walk. Oh! My cousin, you know, he was an MP. My father, he was an MP before me. My grandfather was a sheriff, actually, in LA County. Long time ago.

My mom, she's a corrections
officer actually, or she was. Now she's a counselor for juvenile delinquents. So it's kind of like a
lot of people in my family did things of this nature. So I thought it would be,
when I joined the Army,

It would be a good choice. We have a number of soldiers who go on to have local law enforcement, state law enforcement, and federal law enforcement careers. This legacy of what we often refer to as a family business.

But their long game is to be a law enforcement professional. Many of our soldiers go on to serve their communities. Many of our soldiers go on to serve at the federal level in a variety of different agencies and have good, long careers.

And most look back and remember their time in training as a military police soldier as being the foundation of what made them a professional in the civilian law enforcement world. Narrator: After several rounds of practice searching the detainees and applying cuffs,

students were evaluated by their instructor. So, some of the critical things that we're looking for is, for one, that they engage the double locks on those handcuffs and the leg restraints. That's to ensure that those systems

do not close up or tighten on the detainee because, again, following the Geneva Conventions, we want to ensure that we're not hurting the individual during transport. And then ensuring the keyholes are facing down. That way, for some reason if that detainee

is able to slip that handcuff and that blue box, that they then — additional time for them to try to undo their leg restraints. So, we had no no-gos, and I think that's just the additional practice time,

allowing them to get comfortable, asking them if they need
any additional time, have any questions. So everyone was a go today. Instructor: Ready. Stand by. Narrator: Military police soldiers train to fire the M17 SIG
Sauer 9-millimeter handgun.

You cannot be lazy today. Hold that weapon high and tight. So, today we're just going
over firing familiarization. It's just trying to get repetition for the trainees to get
used to the handgun. The majority of them
have never shot before

or used a handgun or any
type of weapon before. I'm prior law enforcement. I've shot a 9-millimeter before. Yeah, it's pretty easy. The
only thing that's not easy, like, for law enforcement,
we never shot so far.

Normally, we're — every interaction, we're
up close and personal. Narrator: Firing weapons from farther away isn't the only difference
between military police soldiers and civilian law enforcement. We cannot do certain things
that civilian cops can do.

I'd say one of the biggest ones is the escalation of force, how you could put your hands
on somebody so very quickly. You kind of have to analyze and
see the initial threat first before even trying to attempt to take the
escalation level a bit.

Well, UCMJ, mostly. Narrator: The UCMJ, or the
Uniform Code of Military Justice, is the set of laws that
members of the US military must abide by and enforce —
a different legal framework than the laws that civilians follow.

at the state, local, and federal level. We feel safe to kind of
approach just anybody. But the difference is
in the civilian world, you have to approach with caution. You can't just approach somebody. You don't know if they have
something on their person, 

such as any kind of weapon. But on the installation, those
kind of weapons are illegal unless it's registered
on the installation. Instructor: Hands high and in
that close and ready position. And stand by. Narrator: Students learn
the different positions used 

when firing the weapon. Yeah, so we have four positions. So, four, you're going
to break double retention out of your holster,
placing the weapon on fire. And then on position two, you're going to go to the close and ready, 

which is like, your right
hand should be closest to the right side of your rib. In position three, you're going to come and clasp your left hand
with your right hand, just forward of your chest. And then position four, you're
going to push out completely, 

going into the actual ready
stance and ready posture. Narrator: The soldiers also learn how to shoot from different distances. Instructor: So, we have blocks
staged at 5 meters, 2 meters, as well as 7, 10, and then
farther out to 25 meters. 

We understand, majority of the time that you're pulling out your M17, you're probably closer to a threat. It's just trying to help
them with their accuracy, getting that sight
picture, taking their time, and then easy trigger squeeze, 

because at the 25-meter it's a lot easier to pull your shots than you would be if you were closer to the target. Narrator: With many students firing a handgun for the very first time, some struggle with anticipating the recoil.

Instructor: When you fire, what you're doing is you're flexing and you're forcing the weapon to do this, whether you realize it or not. When you only use that trigger finger, again, just the trigger finger, the weapon's going to go up.

Reacquire the sight to come back down. The only part of my body moving is that trigger finger. Then the weapon fires straight. It's OK if it goes up and down. That's recoil. Turn around, face the tower.

If the trainee grips too hard on the right hand, usually they'll end up jerking the trigger to the right side. It's all about reaction time. So getting the trainees to go ahead and do repetition over and over and over helps their reaction time

when it comes to actual roadwork. So if an incident did happen and they have to pull their M17 out of their holster and engage at a threat, their reaction time is a lot faster than it would be if they didn't have repetition.

Narrator: Once trainees are familiar with the 9-millimeter, instructors introduce a new challenge: firing it in complete darkness. Tonight's the limited-visibility familiarization. And they'll conduct it under the limited-visibility hours

utilizing flashlights, different techniques that they're taught to hold the flashlights, engage. Flashlight comes on, engagement; conduct their post-engagement; flashlight comes off, they holster; and then we continue, we move on from there.

You don't want to turn on the light, give away your element of surprise. Sometimes law enforcement, that's what we use as our benefit when we are entering into a building or anything like that. Let's just say a shooter in a building, power is out.

Last thing you want to do is turn the lights on. If they're hiding somewhere, or a basement of a building or a house, that element of surprise is absolutely imperative for the law-enforcement officer. You gotta remember, as law enforcement,

we only draw our weapons when the threat is presented to us. That means we're already at that disadvantage. Soldier: Clear. Beal: Clear. All right, so there's multiple techniques you're going to use. The first technique,

we call it the Harries technique, and that is flashlight oriented towards your target, flashlight hand underneath firing hand, backs of the hands together, punch out. From here, you can acquire your sights and engage the target. The second technique we teach

is what we call the neck index. The neck index, your elbow kind of stays tucked in as much as you can, flashlight pointed towards your target, one-handed with your firing hand, your dominant firing hand, you punch out toward your target

as if you're ready to
conduct an engagement. Straight up and down. Slight cant to help absorb that recoil, or conduct recoil management,
conduct your engagement. And again, completed, you scan your target left
and right, or your sector,

return back to position three, and then flashlight comes off, and you holster and ready
for another engagement. Narrator: MPs must be experts at operating different
types of tactical vehicles. So, say you're all the way this way, and you see, you want them
to straighten their tires out.

Go like this. Everyone go like this. Narrator: Before the drive, they learn the proper hand signals used to direct the M1151A1 Humvee. Getting behind the wheel
with the tactical vehicles, it is a little bit different

with when it comes to steering
and maneuvering the vehicle. You need a ground guide
when it comes to that. So we'll have someone outside
of the car directing us in when to turn and back up. Now back them up.

Back them up. Walk with
them, so you can see. Dibble: So, we learn how to
actually drive the vehicle, and then we go on a convoy and do all that practical
exercise and stuff like that, really getting hands-on
with all the vehicles.

Narrator: Students load up in the Humvees and practice driving in a convoy. Dibble: For the most part,
it's honestly kind of similar. This practice comes into play when we're out in the field in real life, knowing the basics, knowing
how to trust yourself,

and knowing that everyone else
that may be in your squad, you'll know you'll be able to
trust them when it comes to, like, if anything were to break down, you know how to fix it, stuff like that. Narrator: Law enforcement
has been scrutinized

over numerous civilian deaths at the hands of police officers. There is a lot of controversy today surrounding just police
officers in general, law enforcement, anything like that. Narrator: Although there
are many differences between military and civilian police,

we asked the 14th Military Police Brigade how this has affected their
curriculum for future MPs. The 14th Military Police Brigade adheres to the Peace Officer
Standardization and Training. And from the POST curriculum, a lot of different recent, perhaps,

lessons learned from how
our civilian counterparts have handled certain situations are tied to that training. We incorporate all of the
various different aspects of racial and gender differences to understand how to
treat people as people and to try to remove our
subconscious bias, if you will.

To see people more as
people and less as something we might have been taught to see them as. And so for about five weeks, our law enforcement
professionals in training go through a bunch of scenarios that are tied directly to the Peace Officer
Standardization and Training,

much of which includes
those lessons learned from challenges our nation has faced in the recent past and the distant past. A big thing that I am really
wanting to advance towards is getting rid of those stereotypes, that all police officers
are bad or whatever.

I want to be able to make that change and be able to change
people's perception of the MOS and just in the civilian world as well. I think that would be really, really good. Newsreel: All over the
world, the United States Army

is on the alert to defend our country. The Military Police Corps has
a big part in this defense. Narrator:
Military law enforcement officers have served since the Revolutionary War, but the Military Police
Corps that exists today wasn't formally established until 1941.

Newsreel: It was the MP
who guarded the security of United Nations personnel and documents. Narrator: Since its founding,
the Military Police Corps has protected bases and provided security in every major conflict. The US Army found the
MP skillset aligned well

with small-scale
counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the military transitions to potential large-scale combat operations in the Indo-Pacific and Eastern Europe, the Army is also training
MPs to be war fighters. In February 2024, the Army announced plans

How Military Police Soldiers Are Trained | Boot Camp | Business Insider

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Business Insider

Riot Control Training and Misconceptions about MPs

Future military police soldiers participate in a riot-control drill.

The drill is a vital skill, though rarely used.

The importance of proper shield handling to avoid injury is emphasized.

Common misconceptions about MPs as 'party killers' or 'snitches' are addressed.

MPs operate in policing, detention, and security and mobility.

Overview of the 10-week training program at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Focus on the training of 31 Bravos and 31 Echos.

Description of the night-infiltration event (NIC) training.

Five weeks of law-enforcement instruction and scenario-based training, including riot control in a mock prison.

Snatch-and-Grab Technique and Riot Control Training

Explanation of the snatch-and-grab team technique during a prison riot.

Importance of correct riot shield handling for safety.

Riot control training focuses on worst-case scenarios.

Discussion of the 2010 riot at the US Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth.

Detainee Operations and the Geneva Conventions

MP students learn how to properly handle detainees.

Training on the blue box and belly chain restraint system, adhering to the Geneva Conventions.

The importance of the Geneva Conventions is highlighted, referencing the Abu Ghraib prison abuses.

Training on escorting detainees and applying restraints.

Weapons Training and Differences from Civilian Law Enforcement

Training on firing the M17 SIG Sauer 9-millimeter handgun.

Differences in escalation of force between military and civilian law enforcement are discussed.

Comparison of legal frameworks (UCMJ vs. civilian laws).

Training on firing weapons in complete darkness.

Tactical Vehicle Operation and Convoy Training

Training on operating tactical vehicles and using hand signals.

Discussion on how civilian law enforcement controversies have influenced the MP curriculum.

History and Future of the Military Police Corps

Brief history of the Military Police Corps.

Discussion of the Army's restructuring plans for MPs.

Addressing concerns about the safety of Army posts with fewer MPs.

Emphasis on MPs as war fighters in addition to law enforcement roles.