Military protective orders

Courts and responding officers can use and verify military orders when addressing domestic violence involving service members. The law also creates a required notification channel to military law enforcement when a person may have violated both civilian and military restrictions.

What the law does ​

• Allows courts to consider a military protective order for the same or similar conduct when deciding whether to issue a domestic-violence protective order.
• Requires officers at domestic-violence scenes to check the National Crime Information Center for a reported military protective order when the protected person lacks a copy.
• Requires officers to notify the military law-enforcement agency that entered an order when a person with a registered military order violates a civilian protective order and may also be violating the military order.
• Allows local law-enforcement agencies to make agreements with military installations on investigations, reporting, services, and permitted information-sharing in domestic-violence cases involving assigned service members.

Who it affects ​

• Service members subject to protective orders issued by their commanders.
• People seeking protection from domestic violence involving a service member.
• State and local law-enforcement officers responding to domestic-violence incidents.
• Military law-enforcement agencies and representatives of military installations.

Context ​

A military protective order is an order issued by a commanding officer in the U.S. Armed Forces, the California National Guard, or another state or territory’s National Guard against a person under that officer’s command.