More on civilian police training with Marines

The Camp Lejeune story about civilian police training with Marine Corps SWAT-type teams takes yet another step towards appearing even more normal than I first suspected.

There's been some concern among bloggers who interpreted a TV news report about the cross training as implying Marines might be deployed with civilian police departments in policing on America's streets.

Well, here's another data-point I've dug up that suggests the blended training is strictly for internal Marine Corps consumption. More than likely, these are the civilian police referred to in the story:

The Marine Corps initiated a Civilian Police force in 2005 and has established Marine Corps Police Departments in Albany, GA, Jacksonville, FL, and Barstow, CA. At the close of FY11, there are over 800 Police Officers working alongside their Marine Military Police counterparts at Marine Corps Police Departments across the United States. The police officer hires continue with a target of hiring 200 in FY12. After FY12, as the requirements increase and replacements are needed, we will continue to hire for the foreseeable future. These new police officers will be working side-by-side with Marine Corps Military Police at Marine Corps Installations across the United States.

The Marines say having civilian cops picking up policing duties at Marine installations cuts the stress on active duty forces, and can provide continuity when active duty units deploy overseas.

Context is key in understanding a story, and this context was missing from the original TV story. Knowing it now seems to cast the recent training school at Camp Lejeune in a very different light.