page_title: Ministry of Defence Police
hierarchical_section_title: Ministry of Defence Police
context_page_description: The Ministry of Defence Police is a civilian special police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The MDP are not military police and should not be confused with the Royal Military Police or any other Service Police organisation.
  Although superficially similar to other UK police forces, the MDP is significantly different in role, function and accountability. The MDP's primary responsibilities are to provide armed security and counter terrorism services, as well as uniformed policing and limited investigative services to Ministry of Defence property, personnel, and installations throughout the United Kingdom.
  The different role is clearly borne out by the number of arrests made by MDP officers against forces with similar numbers of police officers. In 2016, MDP officers made 61 arrests. In comparison, in the year ending March 2017, Sussex Police made 17,506 arrests whilst Avon & Somerset Constabulary recorded 26,694 arrests for notifiable crimes.
  MDP officers are attested as constables under the Ministry of Defence Police Act 1987. All MDP officers are trained as Authorised Firearms Officers and 90% of those on duty are armed at any given time.
context_section_description: The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is a civilian special police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The MDP are not military police and should not be confused with the Royal Military Police or any other Service Police organisation.
  Although superficially similar to other UK police forces, the MDP is significantly different in role, function and accountability. The MDP's primary responsibilities are to provide armed security and counter terrorism services, as well as uniformed policing and limited investigative services to Ministry of Defence property, personnel, and installations throughout the United Kingdom.
  The different role is clearly borne out by the number of arrests made by MDP officers against forces with similar numbers of police officers (Sussex Police and Avon and Somerset Constabulary).  In 2016, MDP officers made 61 arrests. In comparison, in the year ending March 2017, Sussex Police made 17,506 arrests whilst Avon & Somerset Constabulary recorded 26,694 arrests for notifiable crimes.
  MDP officers are attested as constables under the Ministry of Defence Police Act 1987. All MDP officers are trained as Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) and 90% of those on duty are armed at any given time.
  The force was originally formed in 1971 by the merger of three separate service constabularies: the Air Force Department Constabulary, the Army Department Constabulary, and the Admiralty Constabulary. The force, which consists of two divisions, is headquartered at MDP Wethersfield, Essex.
  The force has a number of specialised departments and also provides officers for international policing secondments; including overseas and training of resident police forces in these areas. These overseas missions are carried out under the mandates of the United Nations, NATO, or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Most recent overseas deployments have been to Afghanistan to train Afghan National Police(ANP) forces in policing skills.
  The MDP underwent a significant restructuring as part of the coalition government's post 2010 austerity measures, and the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Its budget was cut from £360 million to £180 million and it was to lose 20% of its manpower and up to 50% of its stations by 2016. The new, smaller force will concentrate on "high end" tasks such as nuclear weapons security and mobile armed policing of the defence estate.
  As of March 2019 the force had a workforce of around 2,549 police officers and 227 police staff based at numerous defence and infrastructure locations across the United Kingdom.  In terms of officer numbers, it is the second largest of the three special police forces and 18th largest of the 48 police forces of the United Kingdom overall.  The MDP has the second highest number of officers trained as AFOs of any police force, after the Metropolitan Police Service, who as of March 2019, had 2,623 AFOs.
caption: Flag