Uniform Code of Military Justice
Article 192. Military Police and Military Law-Enforcement Authority.
(a) Military Police are military law-enforcement officers of the armed forces and may exercise the law-enforcement authority lawfully assigned to them by this Code, military regulation, judicial process, command authority, or other controlling law.
(b) Subject to controlling law, Military Police may—
(i) apprehend persons subject to this Code when legally authorized;
(ii) investigate suspected military offenses;
(iii) secure scenes and preserve evidence;
(iv) execute warrants, confinement orders, release orders, subpoenas, and other lawful process;
(v) conduct lawful searches, seizures, stops, and protective actions;
(vi) maintain military security and public order; and
(vii) perform other military law-enforcement duties lawfully assigned.
(c) Military Police authority is limited by this Code, the Rules of Practice and Procedure, the Rules of Evidence, judicial orders, and other controlling law. Possession of law-enforcement status does not authorize an unlawful search, arrest, punishment, or interference with protected legal or judicial functions.
(d) A person does not commit an offense merely by lawfully declining consent to a search, invoking the right to counsel, remaining silent where legally permitted, requesting identification or legal authority, recording conduct where lawful, filing a complaint, or challenging police action through an authorized process.