Field Manual (FM) 3-19.15 addresses continental United States (CONUS) and outsidecontinental United States (OCONUS) civil disturbance operations. Today, United States (US)forces are deployed on peacekeeping, peace enforcement, and humanitarian assistance operationsworldwide. During these operations, US forces are often faced with unruly and violent crowdsintent on disrupting peace and the ability of US forces to maintain peace. Worldwide instabilitycoupled with increasing US military participation in peacekeeping and related operationsrequires that US forces have access to the most current doctrine and tactics, techniques, andprocedures (TTP) necessary to quell riots and restore public order.In addition to covering civil unrest doctrine for OCONUS operations, FM 3-19.15 addressesdomestic unrest and the military role in providing assistance to civil authorities requesting it forcivil disturbance operations. It provides the commander and his staff guidance for preparing andplanning for such operations. The principles of civil disturbance operations, planning and trainingfor such operations, and the TTP employed to control civil disturbances and neutralize specialthreats are discussed in this manual. It also addresses special planning and preparation that areneeded to quell riots in confinement facilities are also discussed.In the past, commanders were limited to the type of force they could apply to quell a riot. Riotbatons, riot control agents, or lethal force were often used. Today, there is a wide array ofnonlethal weapons (NLW) available to the commander that extends his use of force along theforce continuum. This manual addresses the use of nonlethal (NL) and lethal forces when quellinga riot.
