First activated in 1959, the brigade was a part of the reserves for the first 40 years of its existence, and never participated in any conflicts or wars of the 20th century.

The 220th Military Police Brigade was headquartered at the Major General Benjamin L. Hunton Memorial United States Army Reserve Center at 8791 Snouffer School Road in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which also serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Army Reserve Legal Command.

The brigade commanded numerous smaller company sized reserve military police units throughout the country.

[4] Ten years later, on 17 April 1970, the location of the group headquarters was again changed to Gaithersburg, Maryland where it remained until inactivation.

By 1999, after 40 years of existence, the brigade had yet to be deployed to a foreign theater of operations or participate in any conflicts or contingencies.

[7] The brigade assumed command of other reserve and national guard military police units during the operation, including company sized units from Virginia,[8] New York, Illinois, California, Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina and Texas[9] The brigade was, in turn, subordinate to the 377th Theater Support Command.

[3] These exercises were highly varied in nature, and primarily aimed at training those units for future deployment to Iraq.