Title 32

SECTION 635.20

635.20 Establishing Memoranda of Understanding.

§ 635.20 Establishing Memoranda of Understanding.

(a) Coordination between military law enforcement personnel and local civilian law enforcement personnel is essential to improve information sharing, especially concerning investigations, arrests, and prosecutions involving military personnel. PM/DES or other law enforcement officials shall seek to establish formal Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with their civilian counterparts to establish or improve the flow of information between their agencies, especially in instances involving military personnel. MOUs can be used to clarify jurisdictional issues for the investigation of incidents, to define the mechanism whereby local law enforcement reports involving active duty service members will be forwarded to the appropriate installation law enforcement office, to encourage the local law enforcement agency to refer victims of domestic violence to the installation Family Advocacy office or victim advocate, and to foster cooperation and collaboration between the installation law enforcement agency and local civilian agencies.

(b) Installation commanders are authorized to contract for local, state, or federal law enforcement services (enforcement of civil and criminal laws of the state) from civilian police departments. (Section 120 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1976). Section 120(a) of the Water Resources Development Act of 1976 authorizes the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to contract with States and their political subdivisions for the purpose of obtaining increased law enforcement services at water resource development projects under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Army to meet needs during peak visitation periods.

(c) MOUs will address the following issues at a minimum:

(1) A general statement of the purpose of the MOU.

(2) An explanation of jurisdictional issues that affect respective responsibilities to and investigating incidents occurring on and off the installation. This section should also address jurisdictional issues when a civilian order of protection is violated on military property (see 10 U.S.C. 1561a).

(3) Procedures for responding to incidents that occur on the installation involving a civilian alleged offender.

(4) Procedures for local law enforcement to immediately (within 4 hours) notify the installation law enforcement office of incidents/investigations involving service members.

(5) Procedures for transmitting incident/investigation reports and other law enforcement information involving active duty service members from local civilian law enforcement agencies to the installation law enforcement office.

(6) Notification that a Solider is required to register as a sex offender either as the result of military judicial proceedings or civilian judicial proceedings.

(7) Procedures for transmitting civilian protection orders (CPOs) issued by civilian courts or magistrates involving active duty service members from local law enforcement agencies to the installation law enforcement office.

(8) Designation of the title of the installation law enforcement recipient of such information from the local law enforcement agency.

(9) Procedures for transmitting military protection orders (MPOs) from the installation law enforcement office to the local civilian law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the area in which any person named in the order resides.

(10) Designation of the title of the local law enforcement agency recipient of domestic violence and CPO information from the installation law enforcement agency.

(11) Respective responsibilities for providing information to victims regarding installation resources when either the victim or the alleged offender is an active duty service member.

(12) Sharing of information and facilities during the course of an investigation in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (see 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(7)).

(13) Regular meetings between the local civilian law enforcement agency and the installation law enforcement office to review cases and MOU procedures.