Photo By Sgt. Alexander Chatoff | Col. Jeremy Kerfoot, the 89th Military Police Brigade commander, speaks to the...... read more read more
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FORT CAVAZOS, Texas - The success of the U.S. Army’s law enforcement, security, and protection activities rests within the Military Police Corps. They provide a myriad of functions, to include stability operations, detentions operations, and maneuver and mobility support. The Military Police Corps leads the way in securing the Army’s readiness at home and abroad.
At Fort Cavazos, the safety and protection of the installation is regulated by the 89th Military Police (MP) Brigade. This formation is commanded by COL Jeremy E. Kerfoot, a career Military Police officer, and a graduate of the FBI National Academy. Currently, the 89th is spread across five installations, with battalions at Fort Bliss, TX, Fort Carson, CO, Fort Riley, KS, and Fort Cavazos, TX, as well as a military working dog detachment at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. With such a large and distributed force, Kerfoot relies heavily on dispersed mission command to enable his leaders and Soldiers to use disciplined initiative to accomplish their mission.
“I have to empower commanders and leaders at echelon to do what they need to do to be a leader”, said Kerfoot. Ability to exercise mission command with his subordinate, dispersed battalions helps to ensure all missions, law enforcement or combat support, are accomplished and Soldiers are supported.
Throughout the year, Kerfoot conducts quarterly in-person visits to the battalions of the 89th MP Brigade, and weekly touchpoints with his team online. Whenever he visits the formations, he works to have an open dialogue with every Soldier he encounters. Kerfoot wants his service members to express their honest opinions and views about issues they are facing, which helps him gain a greater understanding of the mission from their vantage point.
“From my particular seat in the 89th, having to work with multiple commands and agencies to get support to Soldiers, I have a healthy dialogue with Soldiers and several different garrison and division leaderships to make sure that our Soldiers are supported to do the main functions that they do - whether it’s law enforcement or combat support”, said Kerfoot.
One of the unique capabilities of the 89th is their ability to operate at the squad level. This requires detailed training plans and execution, and a continual refinement of core competencies. Kerfoot desires to create better proficiency in the combat support roles of his Military Police formations by extending the training and development time for assigned personnel in their respective area of expertise. With the ongoing transformation of the Military Police Corps, this is driving the battalions to enable larger combat formations on an extended battlefield. The squad level structure of the Military Police Corps aids in executing missions in a contested environment, which allows them to engage in all elements of the human domain. This could be as simple as meeting with local law enforcement to build relationships or as complex as a protecting a brigade size element in a large urban area. Military Police possess the unique capability of creating security flexibility while also producing operational reach for a commander by protecting and preserving a unit’s organic combat power.
“Anything we do from here on out is a focus on how we can get better at law enforcement competencies…take an MP officer doing law enforcement and put him on station for two to three years at a time – creating a more professional Soldier that’s not torn between jumping from law enforcement to combat support and back”, exclaimed Kerfoot. The desired end state is to alleviate the divergence of switching between the two roles of law enforcement and combat support. If this is achieved, Kerfoot believes this is a step in the right direction towards the enhancement of law enforcement training and police professionalism at our installation as well as increasing support to maneuver and operational effectiveness.
“We’re going to see higher levels of Police training opportunities, whether it’s Military Police Investigations (MPI), additional assets to get after traffic management, crime reduction and prevention…all of these protection and policing skills will be added to the repertoire by having more permanence in the law enforcement mission for each Soldier that joins our law enforcement companies at installations”, said Kerfoot.
Recently, like other formations across the Army, the 89th MP Brigade activated a Law Enforcement Activity (LEA) into the Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion (HHBN), III Armored Corps (IIIAC). The LEA's task and purpose is to assist, protect, and defend the community at Fort Cavazos. This unit will partner with the Department of the Army civilian police, Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) and other first responders to serve the community and installation.
The 89th MP Brigade, under the leadership of Kerfoot, is changing to meet the operational needs denoted in the “Army of 2040” initiative, which is meant to transform Army formations while in contact.
| Date Taken: | 10.31.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.31.2024 17:39 |
| Story ID: | 484334 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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