Keeping the peace

[unhappycamper]

Keeping the peace
By Trista Talton - [e-mail]
Posted : Saturday Nov 10, 2007 16:21:39 EST

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — In a move that some say has been a long time coming, the Corps has adopted a plan to begin hiring more than 1,500 civilian law enforcement officers to work at every Marine base in the U.S., to augment the limited numbers of military police.

The move will end the often-hated Fleet Assistance Program for military police units, a deal that sends Marines on loan to the base Provost Marshal’s Office to guard gates and fill in. The units these Marines come from must absorb the loss, which is hard to do in wartime.

Hiring at some bases may begin as early as this month, and bases within the Marine Corps Installations-East and MCI-West regions will complete hiring by 2011. The plan comes at a time when the Corps’ military police — consisting of about 3,500 personnel — are being stretched thin because of the operational tempo overseas.

“The Marine Corps needs to free up active-duty Marines to fight in the (war on terrorism),” Lt. Col. Stephen Simpson, security branch chief for plans, policies and operations at Marine Corps headquarters, said in an e-mail.

Civilian police forces aren’t a new concept for the Corps, though the larger bases and stations have yet to see them. Since 2005, the service has converted provost marshal offices to Marine Corps police departments at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Ga.; Marine Corps Support Facility, Blount Island Command in Jacksonville, Fla.; and MCLB Barstow, Calif. Other branches, including the Army and Air Force, have incorporated civilian police officers into their base security forces, as well, usually as contractors.

The remainder of the Corps’ PMOs will become blended police forces. Bases in Japan will not hire civilians because of the nation’s existing laws, which do not allow civilians to be armed, Simpson said.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/11/marine_security_071110w/