Defence Police Corps (Royal Canadian Gendarmerie)


 * Not to be confused with the Gendarmerie's Military Police Corps, the main provost (military police) service of the Canadian Forces.

The Defence Police Corps (RCG–DPC: French: Corps de Police de la défense, GRC–CPD) is a section/corps of the Royal Canadian Gendarmerie, which functions as the police force for the civilian administration of the Canadian Armed Forces, namely the Department of National Defence (DND), the civilian government ministry overseeing the Canadian military. As of December 2020, the Defence Police Corps has a total of 1,338 personnel, responsible for the approximately 244,000 civilian employees of the DND, making it one of the smallest Gendarmerie corps.

As the DND is staffed by civilian personnel alongside much of the logistical and administrative offices of the Canadian Forces, the Defence Police Corps abides by the Parliament of Canada's National Police Act, according to which the corps during peacetime comes under the jurisdiction of Public Security Canada and must thus behave as a civilian law enforcement agency, alongside several other corps of the Gendarmerie. In wartime, by contrast, all Gendarmerie corps, including the Defence Police Corps, come under the jurisdiction of the Department of National Defence.