Alongside detachments from the Einsatzgruppen and the SS Cavalry Brigade, it perpetrated mass murder in the Holocaust and was responsible for large-scale crimes against humanity targeting civilian populations under the guise of "anti-partisan" warfare.

[2] The goals of the police battalions were to secure the rear by eliminating the remnants of the enemy forces, guarding the prisoners of war, and protecting the lines of communications and captured industrial facilities.

When it crossed the German-Soviet border, the regiment came under the control of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSS-PF) for Army Group Centre.

On 10 July, Daluege visited the unit and addressed the members of the regiment arrayed in a parade formation, extolling them to "exterminate" Bolshevism as a "blessing for Germany".

[6] On 11 July, Montua passed a confidential order from Bach-Zalewski to the battalion commanders that Jews, who had been "convicted of looting", were to be shot; an execution took place the same day.

Police Battalion 316 was withdrawn from the front at the end of April 1942 and then returned to Germany in mid- to late May to recuperate where it was based in Bottrop, Buer, and Gelsenkirchen.

Several months later, it was transferred to Slovenia where its First Company helped to conduct a brief anti-partisan operation (Bandenbekämpfung, or "bandit-fighting"), together with Police Battalion 93, in the vicinity of Škofja Loka between 15 and 17 July.

[14][15] Progress reports on the murderous activities of the Police Regiment Center, the Einsatzgruppen detachment and the SS Cavalry Brigade were regularly forwarded by Bach-Zalewski.

Angered by the scope of the atrocities, Churchill delivered a speech over the radio on 24 August stating:[16] Whole districts are being exterminated (...) Scores of thousands of executions are perpetrated by the German police troops upon the Soviet patriots defending their native soil.