It was trained to be capable of being paramilitary police for bandenbekämpfung, combat operations, counterinsurgency, crowd control, internal security, rear security (rearguard), riot control in prisoner-of-war camps (POW camps), and support military operation.

[1] It participated at anti-Belarusian resistance operations and guarded the POW camps in the coal mines of Stalino and Makeyevka.

[2] Having had 39 killed, 97 wounded, and 11 missing, the battalion was brought back to Estonia in January 1943 and disbanded, with many men joining the Estonian Legion.

[1][4] According to the Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity, "the 36th Police Battalion participated on August 7, 1942 in the gathering together and shooting of almost all Jews still surviving in the town of Novogrudok".

The Commission believes that although there clearly were numerous engagements between police units and partisans, "fighting against partisans" and "guarding prisoner of war camps" were at times ways of describing participation in actions against civilians, including Jews.The Estonian Internal Security Service (KaPo) investigation into the battalion's activities concluded that there was no evidence about participation in war crimes or crimes against humanity.