Military Gendarmerie (Poland)

The Military Gendarmerie (Polish: Żandarmeria Wojskowa, ŻW) is the military police of Poland. Established in 1990, it is a specialized service of the Polish Armed Forces responsible for policing functions within the armed forces and other tasks defined in statute.

The exact role of the gendarmerie has been historically difficult to ascertain, with several changes and developments since the fall of communism. Prior to the abolition of conscription in 2009, the ŻW was primarily responsible with conscription and investigating conscription evasion, however the unit returned to traditional military policing after this with a confusing hiatus of their public role and deployment for 10 years with ad-hoc deployment at the government's will. Since the coronavirus pandemic however, ŻW has taken an increasingly public role in society.

In further confusion, in 2021 the Gendarmerie was demoted from a full service branch of the Polish Armed Forces, instead being classified as an "other" unit, alongside the Inspectorate of Armed Forces Support (logistics unit), the Warsaw Garrison (various representational and ceremonial duties in the capital), as well as the Operational Command and General Staff which are the main decisional organs in the chain of command. As of 2022, the unit also has a Criminal Directorate acting as an intelligence gathering unit for cybersecurity purposes.