Special Investigation Branch
| Special Investigation Branch | |
|---|---|
| Country |
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
|
| Allegiance | HM The Queen |
| Branch | Royal Navy |
| Type | Service Police |
| Role | Policing |
| Website | rmp-sib |
The Special Investigation Branch (SIB) is the name given to the detective branches of all three British military police arms: the Royal Navy Police, Royal Military Police and Royal Air Force Police. It is most closely associated with the Royal Military Police, which has the largest SIB. SIB investigators usually operate in plain clothes, although they may wear uniform when serving overseas. Members are usually senior non-commissioned officers (sergeants or petty officers or above) or commissioned officers, although the Royal Air Force SIB employs corporals who perform the same function as all SIB investigators.
The Royal Navy SIB is the smallest of the three SIBs with the OIC holding the rank of Lieutenant Commander. They investigate:
all incidents falling within Schedule 2 of the Armed Forces Act 2006;
Although an SIB appears to have existed in the British Army of the Rhine in Germany between 1919 and 1926, the origins of the army's SIB are really in 1940, when twenty Scotland Yard detectives were enlisted in the Corps of Military Police to deal with the pilfering of military stores within the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. The unit was formed on the recommendations of Detective Chief Inspector George Hatherill (who later went on to investigate the serial killers John Reginald Christie and John George Haigh, and the Great Train Robbery) and command was given to Detective Superintendent Clarence Campion, head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Record Office, who was commissioned as a Major. Campion was hit in the head by shrapnel during the Dunkirk evacuation and died on 20 May 1940, the only SIB casualty of the BEF. After this beginning, the SIB was established on a full-time basis. One of the first group of detectives, Frank Elliott, was sent out to Cairo, Egypt. Under the supervision of Colonel Claude Harper, Elliott managed a 500-man force which investigated crime in Egypt, Palestine and later Libya.
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Wikipedia