- Royal Marechaussee
Infobox Police
name= Royal Marechaussee
local name= Koninklijke Marechaussee
country=Netherlands
type=Gendarmerie
start= 26-10-1814
motto= "Zonder vrees en zonder blaam" (Without fear and without blame)
title= Commandant
head= "Luitenant-Generaal" Dick van Putten
HQ=The Hague
coa=
web= [http://www.marechaussee.nl/ "Koninklijke Marechaussee"]missions.
History
The "Corps de Maréchaussée" was created by King William I to replace the
French Gendarmerie onOctober 26 ,1814 . The word "gendarmerie" had gained a negative connotation, so William called the new force "marechaussée" (in the document he forgot the first acute accent). Maréchaussée is an alternate French word for "gendarmerie". At that time, the Marechaussee was a part of the army ("landmacht").The Marechaussee was tasked with maintaining public order, fighting crime, and safeguarding the main roads. Although not specifically mentioned, this included police duties for the army. As such, the Marechaussee was part of thenational police ("rijkspolitie").The
Marechaussee would form the only police force in many small cities likeVenlo , especially in the southern provinces of Limburg andNorth Brabant .In 1908, Queen Wilhelmina gave the task of guarding the royal palaces to the Marechaussee, a task which had previously been done by gardeners. To this day, guarding a palace is called "klompendienst" (clog service).
On
July 5 ,1940 , the German occupation government merged the Marechaussee with the "rijksveldwacht" and the "gemeenteveldwacht". This meant that the Marechaussee lost its military status and thepredicate Royal. These changes did not apply to the Marechaussee outside the occupied territory. About 200 "marechaussees" took care of the protection of the royal family, the Dutch government and provided police services to thePrincess Irene Brigade , a brigade formed in theUnited Kingdom , consisting of Dutchmen.After
World War II , the Marechaussee was split into a "Korps Rijkspolitie" (National Police Corps) (as a replacement of the "rijksveldwacht" and the "gemeenteveldwacht") and the "Royal Marechaussee", which regained its military status. From this time the main tasks for the Marechaussee were border protection, military police and guard duties.On
July 3 ,1956 , Princess Beatrix was made patroness of the Royal Marechaussee.In 1994, the National and Municipal police forces merged into the present 25 regional police forces and the
Korps landelijke politiediensten (National Police Services Agency). The National Police transferred its airport police and security tasks (notablySchiphol ) to the Marechaussee.In 1998, the Marechaussee was made independent of the army.
Emblem
The emblem of the Royal Marechaussee is, as with many other gendarmerie forces, a burning
grenade . In the 17th century, a new weapon was introduced inEurope : thehand grenade . The soldiers who handled grenades were called grenadiers. They became anelite type of soldier in all European armies. In France the grenade symbol was adopted by thegendarmerie , and this was imitated by various other similar forces throughout Europe.The burning grenade (but in this case within an eight-pointed star) was also the emblem of the "Rijkspolitie".
Present KMar
The present marechaussee is a police organisation with a military status, under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, but mostly working for the ministries of Justice and Domestic Affairs.The KMar performs the following missions:
*assistance to and replacement of the police
*Escorting and protection ofNATO convoys
*fightingillegal immigration
*fightinginternational crime
*guarding thenational border s
*guarding the royalpalace s and the house of the Prime Minister
*military police functions for the Dutch Armed Forces
*riot control and protection
*security and police work at all civilian airports, notablySchiphol Airport
*VIP close protection including theRoyal Family and high ranking government officialstructure
*Staff Headquarters in
The Hague
*Districts:
**West (Holland and Utrecht, exceptSchiphol )
**South (Zeeland, Brabant and Limburg)
**North/East (all other provinces)
**Schiphol
**Royal Marechaussee National Training and Knowledge Centre
**National and International Units District. This unit was created in 2005 to centralise all existing and new units with national and international missions. The most important units in this district are:
***All missions to foreign countries
***"Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten " (Special Security Brigade),special forces for arrests, observation and protection
***KMOO, the Military Police ServiceThe first four units are territorial civilian police districts, the other two have national rather than territorial responsibilities.
Ranks
This link shows the actual ranks in the Royal Netherlands Navy, Army, Air Force and Marechaussee (Military Police):
Military ranks of the Dutch armed forces Equipment
*
Diemaco C8
*Glock 17
*Heckler & Koch MP5
*FN 303 pelling
In the course of time the two acute accents of the French spelling (Maréchaussée) were dropped. The lowest ranking personnel are referred to as marechaussees (without the capital M), a rank comparable to
corporal s.ee also
*
Constabulary
*Dutch police
*Gendarmerie External links
* [http://www.marechaussee.nl/ Official Marechaussee website (in Dutch)]
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