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Is there any branch of the Imperial Guard mentioned in the fluff that works as military police.

I know that the commisariat have the ultimate power but to me the commisariat works more in the frontline upholding morale and acting like a figure of faith. They don't look like the kind of people who guards penal legionnaires while not in battle or go around investigating crimes done by guardsmen of duty.

Is there any official fluff concerning this?

If there isn't what would be a good "high gothic" name for it? Here are some suggestions useing pseudo-latin

Custodes Commisariat
Custodes Munitorium
Arbites Commisarium
Argus Auxilia
Auxilia Custodes
Praetor Militia

Thanks for the help

Not really.

The Commissariat will pull Guardsmen from a regiment to serve under their auspices for such duties though.

But putting it bluntly, there's not really much need for MPs when if they do something truly bad the Guardsmen get shot.

Agreed regarding the shooting but to shoot someone you at least need some idea as to whom to shoot. And I'm having a hard time imagining a commisar with his forensic equipment.

There's not really much punishment going on for crimes which would require forensic equipment.

When in an active warzone in the Imperium, it's easy to cover up such transgressions. It's only when the plot allows for it that you'll see the idea of "justice" being served.

Plus, a lot of allowances are made for Guardsmen over civilians.

I remember a diarama some one made once but as far as I know the Commissars while deal with it.

The Commissars are Military Police/political officers.

Any sort of Infraction will be delt with by them.



The Adeptus Arbites could also be considered a Military Police force. They are responsible for matters of Imperial Law on the planets they are stationed on(IE: they wouldn't go after petty thieves or things like that, but they would go after Rebels and Seditionists)

The Commissariat acts as the closest thing to the "Military Police". Commissars will impress regular Guardsmen to act as their aids, and this means that only a mutiny by multiple units would render this system ineffective.

Perhaps a world might raise a regiment of Provosts, detaching the Companies to serve with various formations as MPs - Commissar's can't have their eyes everywhere and considering how big IG regiments can be, the Commissar's would have their work cut out.

Apart from that I can't really see a use for Provosts existing beyond keeping Penal battalions in check.

Kanluwen wrote:There's not really much punishment going on for crimes which would require forensic equipment.

When in an active warzone in the Imperium, it's easy to cover up such transgressions. It's only when the plot allows for it that you'll see the idea of "justice" being served.

Plus, a lot of allowances are made for Guardsmen over civilians.

Apart from the we know fluff of the Last Chancers, all made up of convicted IG. It seems from most fluff that criminal activitys by IG are resolved 'in house' by commanding officers with the commisar overseeing.

Petty crimes would probably get you the crap duties
Anything above petty but below summery execution (unless they are very good at killing) will lead to either going to a penal colony or fighting ina penal force.

BluntmanDC wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:There's not really much punishment going on for crimes which would require forensic equipment.

When in an active warzone in the Imperium, it's easy to cover up such transgressions. It's only when the plot allows for it that you'll see the idea of "justice" being served.

Plus, a lot of allowances are made for Guardsmen over civilians.

Apart from the we know fluff of the Last Chancers, all made up of convicted IG. It seems from most fluff that criminal activitys by IG are resolved 'in house' by commanding officers with the commissar overseeing.
Petty crimes would probably get you the crap duties
Anything above petty but below summery execution (unless they are very good at killing) will lead to either going to a penal colony or fighting ina penal force.

Yeah, but here's the question you have to bear in mind when discussing the Penal Legions.

Convicted of what?
There's any number of things which can lead to a conviction and assignment to a Penal Legion. From falling asleep at your watchpost to smartmouthing an officer while your regiment is operating as a garrison force.
There's also the matter of the regiment itself.

A veteran regiment will likely give its soldiers more leeway, officers will likely be given more leeway than those veteran soldiers, etc etc.

Then you have to factor in the Commissar attached to the regiment and any number of other variables.

And depending on the size of the regiment they may have multiple Commissars.

A large infantry regiment would obviously need more then an Armored Regiment would.

Ok, so normaly the commisariat handel these things by themselves. But in the case of MY penal legion there are simply to few commisars per prisoners. So the commisar lord decide to get some junior legislation. What would be a good name? Provosts sound good but not very high gothic.

Savis wrote:Ok, so normaly the commisariat handel these things by themselves. But in the case of MY penal legion there are simply to few commisars per prisoners. So the commisar lord decide to get some junior legislation. What would be a good name? Provosts sound good but not very high gothic.

Provosts works.

Lictor is a good title as well; those were the attendants of the public officials of Rome, as well as the executioners.

Tribunes, to continue the Roman theme, were plebian military officers who had the power to order capital punishment.


Sadly, the Tyranids took most of the good Latin titles. Lictor hast hat problem, though you might still get away with it. Carnifex would be perfect, but, well. . .

There's already some fluff precedent for this. In one of the Cain books, forget which one, he brings a group of Commisar cadets with him into battle to help with morale and keeping things in line. Although it is Cain we're talking about, so it was just as much to keep himself from having to do so much work .

The Space Marines used to have MPs .

I once thought about making an army in the MP color sceme.

Since Cadia doesn't have Arbites, the PDF act as police, so for civil matters, there's going to be a Cadian Gendarmerie.

Cadia does have Arbites, actually.

They don't, however, have a "PDF" as generally defined. Their Planetary Defense Force is called the "Interior Guard" and is composed of actual Imperial Guard regiments stationed planetside.

Isn't it the Arbites, pretty much?

Anfauglir wrote:Isn't it the Arbites, pretty much?

Not really...

Anfauglir wrote:Isn't it the Arbites, pretty much?

No. Nothing like it at all.

The Arbites is more of a Paramilitary police force that enforces Imperial Law.

purplefood wrote:Not really...

Really? Well . . .

Lexicanum wrote:The Adeptus Arbites are a division of the Adeptus Terra, devoted to enforcing Imperial law throughout the entire Imperium.

. . . what's that ^ all about then?

Kanluwen wrote:No. Nothing like it at all.

Hmm . . .

Lexicanum wrote:The Adeptus Arbites enforce the Lex Imperialis, Imperial law, embodied within the great Book of Judgement. Their organisation represents the soldiers and police of the Adeptus Terra.

Each of the Imperium's worlds have their own government, laws, and their own local police forces to enforce those laws. The Arbites concern themselves only with the enforcement of the Imperial law, the broader laws to which the entire Imperium is subject.

Utterly dedicated and without mercy, the Arbites are feared throughout the galaxy, for they are the agents of a harsh law, where failure and incompetence are crimes, and the only punishment is death. Arbites are empowered to act as judge, jury and executioner - citizens have no rights, only members of the Priesthood of Terra or the Inquisition could claim anything so elaborate as a trial.

How is that ^ "nothing like at all" what a military police force would do? It even says: "soldiers and police".

If you want to get pedantic, I can most certainly acquiesce to that idea.

The Cadian Interior Guard has nothing to do with "military police". It is exactly what it says on the tin:
An Interior Guard. The Interior Guard is a collection of Cadian Shock Troop Regiments kept on planet to act in the same role that the PDF on other worlds act.

You'll notice that I said nothing about the Arbites in my post, however. You asked "Isn't it(referring to the Interior Guard) the Arbites pretty much?".

Arbites perform an entirely different role within the fabric of the Imperium: enforcing Imperial law. On Cadia, the two have an overlap of areas of responsibilities but the Arbites are generally restricted to dealing with citizens who break Imperial law.

The Cadian Interior Guard deals with pretty much everything else.

Well, there are Military Police forces and then there are "Military Police"

The latter refers to soldiers within the armed forces whose express purpose is to police the military, as opposed to a Police organization that has military grade hardware and training.

Petty crimes that aren't given the death penalty are ignored IIRC. This is why there are no MP's, because any crime and punishment is dealt with by the Commissar or not at all...

Kanluwen wrote:If you want to get pedantic, I can most certainly acquiesce to that idea.

The Cadian Interior Guard has nothing to do with "military police". It is exactly what it says on the tin:
An Interior Guard. The Interior Guard is a collection of Cadian Shock Troop Regiments kept on planet to act in the same role that the PDF on other worlds act.

You'll notice that I said nothing about the Arbites in my post, however. You asked "Isn't it(referring to the Interior Guard) the Arbites pretty much?".

Arbites perform an entirely different role within the fabric of the Imperium: enforcing Imperial law. On Cadia, the two have an overlap of areas of responsibilities but the Arbites are generally restricted to dealing with citizens who break Imperial law.

The Cadian Interior Guard deals with pretty much everything else.

Ah. A simple misunderstanding, then. My post has nothing to do with the Cadian Interior Guard: it is simply a reply to the TC's question (the fact that I responded with quotes about the Arbites being analogous to MPs should have at least hinted at that much). If I respond to or discuss anything not directly related to the OP and its contents then I (9 times out of 10) will indicate this by first quoting the post/user to which I am responding (rather than hitting the "add reply" button, as I did with my OP). It's a simple system, but it works.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Grey Templar wrote:Well, there are Military Police forces and then there are "Military Police".

Yeah. So like the Arbites, then, who can (going off publlished fluff material at least) account for both.

Aren't the Adeptus Arbites technically Military Police/Enforcers? They have shock mauls, combat shields, beat the crap outta anyone who steps outta line, they even have access to tanks and the like.
As far as specific "Military Police" go, i don't think you'll get much closer than that.

iGuy91 wrote:Aren't the Adeptus Arbites technically Military Police/Enforcers? They have shock mauls, combat shields, beat the crap outta anyone who steps outta line, they even have access to tanks and the like.
As far as specific "Military Police" go, i don't think you'll get much closer than that.

As already a difference between militerised police and military police

I would assume the commissars would do the investigation and such. They likely learn basic investigation-procedures as they would be pretty worthless if all they do is execute people for whatever reason they can come up with. Also they need to prove that Lord-Generals and other ranking members are inept if they execute them. So good luck in that departement without investigation-techniques.

The commissars also seems to be the MPs of WH40k. as they enforces the Imperial law amongst the troops. Not every offense is a death-warrant. There is a difference between playing cards for money, and murdering civilians for no reason.

There is reference in one of the Gaunts Ghost about how MPs are worked out, usually commissars do the work, and you do get punished for crimes, regardless of which crime it was. Cuu got flogged for looting if I recall the passage correctly.