Military Protective Order

Military Protective Order - (a) A DD Form 2873, Military Protective Order (MPO) is a written lawful order issued by a commander that orders a Soldier to avoid contact with those persons identified in the order. MPOs may be used to facilitate a “cooling-off” period following domestic violence and sexual assault incidents, to include incidents involving children.

The commander should provide a written copy of the order within 24 hours of its issuance to the person with whom the member is ordered not to have contact and to the installation LE activity. (c) A Civilian Protective Order (CPO) is an order issued by a judge, magistrate or other authorized civilian official, ordering an individual to avoid contact with his or her spouse or children.

Military Protective Order

Pursuant to the Armed Forces Domestic Security Act, 10 U.S.C. 1561a, a CPO has the same force and effect on a military installation as such order has within the jurisdiction of the court that issued the order.

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NNEDV is a 501©(3) non-profit organization; EIN 52-1973408. An MPO is only enforceable on the military base or installation and only while the service member is attached to the command that issued the order. When the service member is transferred to a new command, the order will no longer be valid.

(b) Initial notification. In the event a MPO is issued against a Soldier and any individual involved in the order does not reside on an Army installation at any time during the duration of the MPO, the installation PMO/DES will notify the appropriate civilian authorities (local magistrate courts,

family courts, and local police) of: The commander who issued the MPO is supposed to recommend to the new command that a new MPO is issued when the service member is transferred if an MPO is still necessary to protect the victim.

Therefore, if you believe that an MPO is still necessary for your protection, be sure to contact the commander who issued the MPO or have your victim advocate or the FAP contact the commander on your behalf.

Years from now I have no doubt that honorably discharged service members or retired service members who were issued an MPO years prior will find out that the MPO still lives in NCIC and prohibits the possession or purchase of a firearm.

Or the MPO will come up during a background check for a job. And in most of the cases the MPO should have never been issued in the first place. This provision was enacted as part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act in response to reports that civilian law enforcement were unaware of and could not enforce military protective orders (MPOs) issued by military commanders.

A MPO is akin to a civilian injunction that places limits on contact and liberty. A MPO can prohibit a service member from having direct contact or contact through third parties with specific persons. It can prohibit a service member from going to a specific place and possessing personal firearms.

A MPO is now issued using DD Form 2873 dated February 2020. The biggest impact of 10 U.S. Code § 1567a is its application by the Department of Defense – the Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, and Navy.

By DoD and makeshift service regulations, all MPOs are to be entered in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). NCIC is the expansive database run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that can be accessed by any civilian (federal and state) or military law enforcement agency.

It's the same system where arrests, convictions, and warrants are entered. NCIC is the system that the police are accessing from their car computer during the traffic stop or that dispatch is accessing over the radio when they are calling in the license.

A military protective order (MPO) is a tool that can be used by command to help keep you and/or your children safe if you have experienced domestic violence or child abuse by a service member. It doesn't matter if you are a service member or a civilian.

You, a victim advocate, an installation law enforcement agency, or Family Advocacy Program (FAP) clinician could be the one to ask the commander to issue an MPO. The DD Form 2873 on its face indicates that the MPO never expires.

So it is put into NCIS and it never expires. It can be removed from NCIC by a properly completed DD Form 2873-1, Cancellation of Military Protective Order that is provided to the military law enforcement that originally entered the MPO into NCIC.

But here is the problem – unlike civilian courts that issue injunctions that last more than days only after an adversarial hearing (think due process!) and that have entire staffs dedicated to entering and removing those injunctions from NCIC, military commanders don't have that.

support nor is tracking and updating MPOs a high priority for a commander. This doesn't even account for the frequent changes of command! The worst part of what has yet to come is that there is no good mechanism for removing information from NCIC.

The burden will be on the service member to show that he is entitled to have the MPO removed. I can see it being an extremely burdensome procedure to try and convince military authorities they need to remove a MPO from years earlier.

There are numerous problems with MPOs – the lack of any real due process; the extensive duration of the MPOs; the idea that military commanders are suited to resolve domestic issues in cases involving spousal or child abuse;

the lack of inexperience of military commanders to determine whether or not the circumstances (and more importantly, the facts) call for the issuance of MPOs. The reality is that MPOs are being issued by military commanders without a proper evaluation of all facts and circumstances.

Rather, MPOs are issued as a standard operating procedure or at the request of an alleged victim of domestic violence or sexual assault. This is a real problem, but I expect it to get worse. Attorney Patrick Korody is a former active duty Navy JAG.

He defends service members facing sexual assault and other UCMJ crimes all over the world. He maintains an office in Jacksonville, FL where he also practices state and federal criminal defense. And, as you can tell, he very much dislikes military protective orders.

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