Military Aid to the Civil Power Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Military aid to the civil power (MACP) is assistance by the armed forces to the police in maintaining law and order. It is used in many countries, particularly the United Kingdom.
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2 Germany 3 See also |
United Kingdom
MACP is one of the fundamental military tasks of the British Army.
As with all deployments of the armed forces, its use must be specifically
authorised by a defence minister. It is always applied at the request of,
and under control of, the police. The legal basis is the common law duty
of every subject to maintain the Queen's peace.
Examples of military aid to the civil power include:
- Security forces in Northern Ireland
- Army patrols around Heathrow Airport and other sites in early 2003, in response to perceived terrorist threat
- The Special Air Service intervention in the Iranian Embassy Siege
Germany
The post-war constitution of Germany strictly forbids the use of military force in police functions. The functions that MACP has in other countries are carried out by special police forces, which are under the control of the state governments, not of the federal government.This was enacted to prevent the army from becoming a political power again in internal affairs and to secure its subordination to the civil power. Since the 1990s, a number of conservative politicians has called for an abolition of this rule, but there seems to be no majority for such a change.