Royal Navy Regulating Branch
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Royal Navy Regulating Branch is the military police branch of the British Royal Navy. Its members are known as Regulators and enforce law, order and discipline both aboard ship and in shore establishments. Unlike the Royal Military Police and Royal Air Force Police, the Regulating Branch only recruits from personnel who are already in the Navy. Its members hold a minimum rate of Leading Rating (Leading Regulator) and can be promoted to Regulating Petty Officer, Master-at-Arms (Chief Petty Officer) and Warrant Master-at-Arms (Warrant Officer). The Regulating Branch has its own Special Investigation Branch (SIB) for investigating crime. The non-substantive (trade) badge for Regulators is a crown (worn in a wreath by Masters-at-Arms).
Among the rest of the Navy, Regulators are held in a certain amount of suspicion for leaving their initial trade (as all Regulators entered the Navy and served for a time as something else; similar aspersions are cast on Physical Training Instructors, also known as "Club-Swingers", for the same reason). They are also known for a their almost universal virulent insistence on being addressed by their branch-specific titles ("Leading Reg", "RPO" or "Master" depending on rank). Like most military police forces, it is the Regulators who punish other military personnel for rule infractions (including such things as returning to the ship overly drunk) and administer compulsory drug testing. As one would imagine, this does little to endear them to the rest of the Navy, despite the essential nature of these jobs.
Aside from their law enforcement role, Regulators aboard warships serve a more utilitarian function, normally as part of the ship's hangar crew.
