The Royal Marechaussee (Dutch: Koninklijke Marechaussee, abbreviated to KMar) also translated as the Royal Military Constabulary, is the national gendarmerie force of the Netherlands, performing military and civilian police duties. It is also one of the two national police forces in the Netherlands, alongside the National Police Corps, and is one of the four branches of the Netherlands Armed Forces.

Royal Marechaussee

Koninklijke Marechaussee

The Corps de Maréchaussée was created by King William I to replace the French Gendarmerie on 26 October 1814. The word gendarmerie had gained a negative connotation, so William called the new force “marechaussée” (he forgot the first acute accent in the document). Maréchaussée is an alternate French word for gendarmerie. In the French historical context, “Maréchaussée” had been the force’s name under the Royal Ancien Regime, while the term “gendarmerie” had been adopted by the French Revolution, making the Royalist term preferable for the Dutch King.

Real Policía Militar Holandesa

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الشرطة العسكرية الملكية الهولندية

At that time, the Marechaussee was a part of the army (landmacht). The Marechaussee was tasked with maintaining public order, law enforcement, and safeguarding the main roads. Although not specifically mentioned, this included police duties for the army. As such, the Marechaussee was part of the national police (rijkspolitie). The Marechaussee was the only police force in many small municipalities, such as Venlo, especially in the southern provinces of Limburg and North Brabant (former Generality Lands). In 1908, Queen Wilhelmina assigned the Marechaussee the task of guarding the royal palaces, which had previously been done by gardeners. To this day, guarding a palace is called “klompendienst” (clog service).

荷蘭皇家憲兵隊

Police Militaire Royale Néerlandaise

After Kristallnacht in November 1938, the Dutch government officially closed its borders to any Jewish refugees. The Dutch Marechaussee border guards searched for them and returned any found to Germany, despite the horrors of Kristallnacht being well known. In 1939 Nicholas Winton succeeded with his Kindertransport, thanks to the guarantees he had obtained from Britain. After the first train, the process of crossing the Netherlands went smoothly. On 5 July 1940, the German occupation government merged the Marechaussee with the rijksveldwacht and the gemeenteveldwacht. This meant that the Marechaussee lost its military status and the predicate Royal. These changes did not apply to the Marechaussee outside occupied Dutch territory. About 200 marechaussees guarded the Royal Family and the Dutch government-in-exile, and provided military police services to the Princess Irene Brigade, a brigade formed in the United Kingdom, consisting of Dutchmen.

Holenderska Królewska Żandarmeria Wojskowa

Голландская королевская военная полиция

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. The main tasks for the Marechaussee since then have been border protection, military police and guard duties. On 3 July 1956, Princess Beatrix became patroness of the Royal Marechaussee. In 1994, the national and municipal police forces were merged into 25 regional police forces and the Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (National Police Services Agency). The National Police transferred its airport police and security tasks (primarily Schiphol) to the Marechaussee. In 1998, the Marechaussee became a separate Service within the armed forces. In 2014, a team of 40 Marechausee officers went to eastern Ukraine to assist the investigation into the shooting down of Malaysian airliner MH17. They provided security for the international team and assistance in collecting evidence from the crash site.

डच रॉयल मिलिट्री पुलिस

Polisi Militer Kerajaan Belanda

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National Police Corps (Dutch: Korps Nationale Politie), colloquially in English as Dutch National Police or National Police Force, is divided in ten regional units and a central unit, and the Royal Marechaussee (Dutch: Koninklijke Marechaussee), a gendarmerie. Law enforcement in the Netherlands operates primarily through governmental police agencies. The law-enforcement purposes of these agencies are the investigation of suspected criminal activity, referral of the results of investigations to the courts, and the temporary detention of suspected criminals pending judicial action. Law enforcement agencies, to varying degrees at different levels of government and in different agencies, are also commonly charged with the responsibilities of deterring criminal activity and preventing the successful commission of crimes in progress.

Dutch Police

Policía Holandesa

From the end of 1945 until 1993, the Dutch police was composed of the municipal police (Dutch: gemeentepolitie) and the national police (Dutch: rijkspolitie). In 1994, the police was reorganized into 25 regional constabularies (Dutch: regiokorpsen) and a National Constabulary (Dutch: Korps landelijke politiediensten, KLPD). In 2013 the police in the Netherlands was reorganised again into its current structure. In the event of serious emergencies, the police cooperates with the fire brigade, ambulance service, other government agencies and military forces in the security region corresponding to the police region.

Niederländische Polizei

الشرطة الهولندية

Every regionale eenheid (regional unit) is led by a unitchef (unit chief), a Hoofdcommissaris (Chief Commissioner) who conducts the day-to-day police force management. Decisions about the principal law enforcement policies are made by a regional board, the so-called Driehoek (triangle) whose chairman is the eenheidsbeheerder (unit manager). The eenheidsbeheerder is usually the mayor of the largest municipality in the region. The other board members of the Driehoek are the unit chief and the local chief prosecutor. A region consists of several districts, each having a district chief. Each district consists of a number of local units, called basiseenheden (basic units) or teams.

Police Néerlandaise

Голландская полиция

The “police strength”, the number of constables and other police employees in a region is determined by the number of inhabitants and the amount of crime in the region. So the smallest force counts about 300 police officers, while the largest one counts more than 5,000 police employees. in 2022 there were about 55,000 police employees serving in the Netherlands.
Selected police officers may also be deployed in a riot police mobile unit. Mobile units are called in to deal with serious public order offences. Each police region has one or more units on stand-by for a total of 45 mobile units nationwide, each of which has about 50 members (including middle-ranking and senior officers). Nine units have also been trained to respond to incidents on maritime vessels. The mobile unit also incorporates plain clothes units known as ‘aanhoudingseenheden’. These groups target specific suspects of public order offenses.

荷兰警察

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