V5-Military Police Investigator

US Army Military Police Investigators (MPI) are members of the MP company on the post/installation to which they are assigned. Those selected to become MPI's are MP's who excel in law enforcement activities and exhibit an inclination for conducting thorough investigations of crimes committed by both service members and civilians alike on military reservations.

Typically working in a plainclothes capacity, MPI's handle a large variety of criminal investigations including larceny, assault, fraud, illegal narcotics, robbery and burglary. Matter of fact, MPI's conduct ALL criminal investigations that are not otherwise assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). Plus, it is not unusual for MPI's and CID agents to collaborate on special combined investigations. And like CID agents, MPI's are not required to disclose their actual rank when attired in civilian clothes.

MPI's are enlisted military personnel, with ranks generally ranging from E-4 to E-8. The highest ranking MPI within a given unit is typically designated as the supervisor or the "Investigator In Charge."

Military Police Investigators were originally referred to as Provost Marshal Investigators and the name of their unit was the Provost Marshal Investigation Bureau (PMIB), which the Army eventually decided was too vague in describing the "bureau's" responsibilities. In 1969 a name change took place and the Army-wide universal unit name became "Military Police Investigations."

In 1971, the MPI's acquired a specialty identifier of "V5" that was tagged onto the Investigator's primary MOS designation, i.e. "95B20V5." Existing Investigators were grandfathered in as V5's. However, new Investigators were required to attend the Military Police Investigator School prior to receiving their "Victor-Five" identifier and their standardized MPI credentials.

Military Police Investigators have continued on to the presentday, providing specialized criminal investigative services for a given military facility. And, they remain an elite unit within the US Army Military Police Corps.