Focus on the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP)

The MDP applies 'constabulary powers and civil police training to combat … crime and disorder faced by the MoD'. This can involve armed security, uniformed policing, and investigating serious crime. It is the MoD's own dedicated force of around 3,500 officers, all of them having full Constabulary powers, and 300 civilian support staff. They operate at 120 MoD establishments and units throughout the United Kingdom, wherever their services are required, and are the UK's only truly national police force. Every officer is weapons trained and, at any one time, 70 per cent of MDP officers on duty carry arms (just as well, since tasks include the guarding of Britain's nuclear deterrent).

Other tasks are the waterborne security of all dockyards (its marine units hold more rigid inflatable boats and launches than any other UK police force), searching vessels for drugs and contraband, and using its 400 dog handlers for arms, explosive and drugs searches. Its CID and Fraud Squad have had some notable successes, including:
o the conviction of a former MoD Director
o a contractor who had to repay £250,000 for inflated invoices, and two employees sentenced to imprisonment
o £132,000 of property recovered in one case
o a civilian, receiving pensions from two separate agencies sentenced to imprisonment
o civil action resulting in £400,000 being repaid to the MoD.

The 50-strong Operational Support Unit is the MDP's own multi-capability response unit. Its specialist skills include public order duties, anti-terrorist search teams and personnel protection, and may be deployed anywhere in the UK at short notice. The Special Escort Group protects nuclear material travelling between MoD establishments. Sixty officers support the UN policing force in Kosovo, and it is now advising on policing in Iraq.

Force headquarters is at Wethersfield, Essex, on a 825-acre site with a nine-mile perimeter. An old airbase, it has a two-mile runway, a self-contained village comprising 150 houses and a school (which is now a training centre), a church, a 230-seat theatre, numerous indoor recreational facilities, hangars and other storage facilities.

The MDP can trace its history back to 1686 when the Royal Navy needed an organisation to prevent dockyard crime. So the Secretary to the Admiralty - Samuel Pepys, the diarist - formed a force of 'porters, rounders, warders and watchmen' to guard the Naval Yards. Porters identified and escorted visitors, rounders patrolled the yard, warders were responsible for the keys and backed up the porters at the gates, and the part-time watchmen guarded buildings and areas by night.

In 1834 this force became the first dockyard police, with full police powers within the dockyards, and acting as policemen over offences committed by employees and Naval personnel within a radius of five miles of the yard. Rewards for obtaining convictions quickly led to corruption, so the force was 'cleaned up' and then abolished. The Metropolitan Force took over, and senior Naval officers became magistrates. A Royal Marine Police Force was formed 1934 and subsequent changes led in 1949 to an Admiralty Constabulary.

The Army used serving soldiers to guard its establishments and the only call for Police was at places like the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. A War Department Constabulary was formed in 1925 (renamed Army Department Constabulary in 1964 when the War Office became the Army Department). Policing at Air Ministry establishments was originally provided by the Metropolitan Police and County Constabularies. They were replaced by warders, later styled Air Ministry Constables. In 1964 the Force was renamed the Air Force Department Constabulary.

Agency Status in 1996 was a logical development of the force, after its formation as the MDP in 1971 as an amalgamation of the three previous single-Service constabularies. It cooperates with local police forces because, although its jurisdiction is usually restricted to MoD land and property, it may operate elsewhere if requested to assist a local force, when they suspect someone of an offence, or to save life, or prevent or minimise injury.

The MDP looks to recruit level-headed, responsible people with good fitness and enthusiasm. They must also be aged at least 19, hold British nationality, have good health, possess a full car licence, be prepared to work at any UK location, and be currently resident in the UK (this does not apply to members of HM Forces serving abroad). Applicants must be willing to undergo security clearance and to carry firearms. Most vacancies are in the Thames Valley and London areas. Seventeen weeks at the training centre produce a fully fledged Constable, who then completes a two-year probation period based at Aldermaston in Berkshire. Next steps are to a specialist post within the Force.

For an information pack write to Recruiting Department, Ministry of Defence Police HQ, Wethersfield, Nr Braintree, Essex CM7 4AZ, or see the websites at www.mod.uk/mdp/ and www.modpoliceofficers.co.uk/