Whether there are accidents involving motor vehicles, explosive ordnance finds, or explosive attacks: Whenever it is required to secure evidence for further investigations, the military police will be employed. Depending on the nature of the incident, dedicated specialist units will be tasked to secure potential evidence.
If a serviceman or woman commits a drug crime or traffic violation, or steals Bundeswehr property, the military police are there to investigate. Whenever a service member is suspected of having committed a criminal offence, the responsible disciplinary superior will be informed and the public prosecutor’s office will be called in. In close cooperation, disciplinary superior, military police, and the competent Land police will initiate interagency investigations.
On operations abroad, functioning police forces often do not exist in theatre. In such cases, the military police will perform police tasks for the German servicemen and women on site. To keep up with German police service standards, they often conduct the entire investigation procedure with the consent of the disciplinary superior concerned: interviewing witnesses and experts, evidence collection at the crime scene, as well as the screening of paper and digital documents.
The purpose of investigations into suspected war crimes is to identify the perpetrator(s) and to reconstruct the place, time and sequence of events. The military police must collect as much reliable evidence of the crime and its liability to criminal prosecution as possible. Particular attention must be paid to preventing traces and trace carriers from being altered and falsified. The same applies to the identification of the suspect to prove individual perpetration of the offence. The corresponding procedures do not differ from traditional police crime-scene work and investigations.
A military police investigator documents the evidence found at the site of a suspected war crime. Continuous practice makes perfect.
Bundeswehr/Susanne Hähnel
The Military Police use the same equipment and means for evidence collection as the Federal Criminal Police Office or Land police forces
Bundeswehr/Steve Eibe