NATO MILITARY POLICE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

ROMANIA



ROMANIAN MILITARY POLICE 

GENERAL

ROLE

Romanian Military Police is the corps of Romanian Armed Forces responsible for order and discipline, manoeuver and mobility support, Armed Forces personnel and property protection, sensitive military compounds security.
STRENGTH - about 1000 personnel.

HISTORICAL OUTLINE
The history of the Romanian Military Police is closely related to the history of Romanian Gendarmerie, being a sort of part of it. It should be noticed that in this origins the Gendarmerie was set up as a part of Ministry of War. Therefore, the archaic term of ’’troop’s police” could be found starting with 1850 in army’s structure but the official day of the military police establishment should be considered 5th November 1893. On that day King Carol the 1st promulgated the Law of Villages’ Gendarmerie. In this law, the Military Police branch was mentioned for the first time.
In 1908, 1911 and 1913, new laws and regulations regarding the activity of Gendarmerie were set up in order to increase the efficiency of it. In order to avoid any confusions, the new Law of Gendarmerie promulgated on March 24th 1908, stated that:
’’During military operations the gendarmerie will act as Military Police in order to manage accurately the military traffic, the escort of prisoners and to assure the security of main objectives and installations”.
During World War I and World War II, the Gendarmerie/MP corps participated, among all other forces, in performing all specific tasks, even combat missions.
The evolution of the events placed the Gendarmerie alternatively under Ministry of War and Ministry of Interior Command.
After World War II, the Gendarmerie was reassigned to Ministry of Interior, Military Police disbanded and the personnel were sent to other structures as part of different branches.
In May 1990, the Ministry of National Defense issued the order to establish Military Police branch within the Romanian Armed Forces.
Since 1990, the Romanian Military Police have taken part in all overseas Romanian Army operations in Somalia, Angola, Kuwait, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. 








CAPABILITIES/TASKS
Main mission on national territory.
Order and discipline
  • Law enforcement
  • Crime prevention
  • Investigations
  • Support border control 
Manoeuver and mobility support
  • Movement planning
  • Movement control
  • Movement sustainment 
Security
  • Military compounds guarding and defence
  • Crowd and riot control
  • Personnel security
Overseas missions
In addition to the main missions on the national territory, when performing overseas operations, military police are able to provide:
  • Support to detention operations;
  • Crowd and riot control;
  • Monitoring of separation zones/boundaries;
  • Host nation security forces training and support. 
JURISDICTION
Military police personnel do not have any specific police powers over the general public. Military Police deal only with the Ministry of National Defense personnel.