10 U.S.C. § 8614

(a) The Secretary of the Navy may make such expenditures out of available appropriations as he considers necessary to— (1) apprehend and deliver deserters, stragglers, and prisoners; and (2) operate shore patrols. (b) The Secretary, to the extent he considers proper, may delegate the authority conferred by this section to any person in the Department of the Navy, with or without the authority to make successive redelegations.