| Agencyname: | National Institutes of Health Division of Police |
| Abbreviation: | NIH Police or NIH DP |
| Logocaption: | NIH Logo |
| Country: | United States |
| Federal: | Yes |
| Headquarters: | Bethesda, Maryland |
| Sworn: | 105 Sworn Officers |
| Parentagency: | National Institutes of Health |
| Award1: | Hurricane Katrina[1] |
In the US, the National Institutes of Health Division of Police (NIH DP) is the security police force that police and protect National Institutes of Health (NIH) people and property.[2]
The NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, consists of approximately 75 buildings that span over 300 acres of exclusive federal jurisdiction.
The NIH Police are responsible for law enforcement services at the National Cancer Institute located in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana.
The NIH in Bethesda has the world's largest hospital dedicated to scientific research, its own power plant, water treatment plant, and Fire Department. NIH also contains the Vaccine Research Center and C.W. Bill Young Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases which houses BSL 3 and BSL 4 laboratories.
The NIH Police are an approximately 105-officer department which consists of Patrol Units, K9, Investigators, Intelligence Unit, Special Response Team, Training Division, Firearms Instructors, as well as Tactical Medical Officers.[3]
The NIH DP has both a Police Department and a contracted security force, known as the Guard Force Operations Branch (GFOB), which provides physical security at gates at campuses.[4]
Security at the perimeter consists of:
The rank structure of the NIH Police is as follows:
It is the mission of the NIH Division of Police to protect the country's national treasure: scientific research, the NIH research community and to ensure that the mission of NIH is not impeded by personal attacks, loss of assets, criminal activity or acts of terrorism.
NIH Police are armed federal officers and have a variety of equipment to do their jobs.
NIH Police wear a midnight navy shirt and outer armor carrier (Officers), white shirts and outer armor carrier (Sergeants and above), midnight navy patrol duty uniform pants, and black boots. K-9 officers wear blue BDU-style uniform and baseball cap.
NIH Police are equipped with a Sig Sauer P320 pistol, radio, handcuffs, flashlight, OC spray, baton and marked patrol vehicles fitted with lights and sirens. Issued long guns are the H&K 416D semi-auto and the H&K MP5 SD.