text: Chapter 7
  • Locate and safeguard key witnesses, documents, and other evidence related to key ongoing
  or potential investigations and prosecutions.
  • Control crowds, prevent looting, and manage civil disturbances.
  • Secure facilities, records, storage equipment, and funds related to criminal justice and security
  institutions.
  • Build Host Nation capacity to protect military infrastructure.
  • Build Host Nation capacity to protect infrastructure and public institutions.
  • Build Host Nation capacity for emergency response.
  • Fostering sustainability where military forces identify modernization needs and the means
  to achieve them.
  Establish Interim Criminal Justice System
  7-14. Often in COIN, establishing or reestablishing an interim justice system is a prerequisite. This
  restoration requires a wide range of skilled professionals working under a clearly defined legal authority:
  judges, prosecutors, court administrators, defense lawyers, corrections personnel, law enforcement,
  and investigators. These personnel—and the institutions they represent—provide a temporary respite that
  allows the Host Nation to restore its legal system. Essential tasks may include an initial response in which
  military forces—
  • Assess current laws and need for modifications or adoption of internationally accepted codes.
  • Assess Host Nation capacity to combat crime.
  • Deploy interim justice personnel to complement Host Nation criminal justice system.
  • Establish mechanisms to review the legality of detentions and minor cases to minimize pretrial
  detention.
  • Enact interim legal codes and procedures permitted by international law.
  Support Law Enforcement and Police Reform
  7-15. US military forces provide support to law enforcement and policing operations, which is integral
  to establishing civil control. HN police may provide this capability if the security environment permits.
  Usually in insurgencies, the HN police may have become corrupt or failed altogether. In failed states,
  especially during and immediately after conflict, military police forces are the only organizations able
  to fill this void. At times, HN police augment military forces, rather than the other way around. The
  preferred providers of civilian law enforcement services are HN police, augmented as required by military
  and paramilitary police units with policing capabilities. Civilian agencies typically provide training
  and capacity-building support for law enforcement services. However, US and HN military forces may be
  required to perform these services in the interim, until the situation permits transition of this function
  to civilian agencies or organizations. Essential tasks may include the following:
  • Identify, secure, and preserve evidence of—
  (cid:131) War crimes.
  (cid:131) Crimes against humanity.
  (cid:131) Corruption.
  (cid:131) Transnational crime such as terrorism, organized crime, human trafficking, and narcotics.
  • Identify and detain perpetrators of these offenses.
  • Support vetting, checking credentials, and accounting for HN police forces.
  • Inventory and assess police facilities and systems.
  • Train and advise HN police forces.
  • Rehabilitate or construct necessary facilities.
  • Establish police academies.