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Md. Code, Public Safety § 13-501

This is the official text of Md. Code, Public Safety § 13-501, part of Maryland’s Code, Public Safety — governs police, fire, and emergency services.

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§13–501.

Official statutory text

(a) (1) There is established in the State a Maryland Defense Force within the Military Department.

(2) The Governor is the commander–in–chief of the Maryland Defense Force.

(3) The Maryland Defense Force is under the operational control of the Adjutant General.

(4) There is a commanding general of the Maryland Defense Force who is appointed by the Adjutant General and serves as such at the pleasure of the Adjutant General.

(b) The Maryland Defense Force is a component of the organized militia of the State in addition to and separate from the National Guard.

(c) (1) The Maryland Defense Force shall have the primary mission of providing competent and supplemental professional, technical, and military support to the Maryland Army National Guard, the Maryland Air National Guard, and the Maryland Department of Emergency Management.

(2) The Maryland Defense Force shall also have other duties and missions as it may be assigned from time to time by competent authority.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.