The critical analysis of the role of the military police in crime prevention

Abstract

MPD is an entity within the SANDF responsible for maintaining law and order, prevent and combat crime, investigates criminal cases or alleged within the DoD. The role of the MPs has changed drastically over the past years especially after the integration of the non-statutory and statutory forces with all changes in crime growth increased in South Africa and affected the DoD. This led to the MPD shifting from disciplinary crime prevention issues to criminal crime prevention, as the basic mission of the police is to prevent crime and disorder. MPs form part of the police agencies that are within South Africa, the uniqueness of the MPs they operating within the SANDF but they cannot be isolated from the complicated growing crime phenomenon that affects the whole South African community. As crime prevention is the catchphrase for all the police agencies and government departments, it is imperative for the MPs to align its crime prevention to the modern policing. This study gives a comprehensive explanation of what crime prevention is, from the literature reviewed relevant to the study, with the aim to critically analyse the role of the MPs in crime prevention within the military proclaimed environment. The researcher collected data in the form of unstructured interviews, documents and literature. Collected data was transcribed; larger text was broken into smaller segments, coded and then selected into themes. Participants had different views of the understanding of the meaning of crime prevention and different comprehension of the MPs crime prevention guideline and procedures. This analysis was done in order to determine the level of understanding of the role of the MPs, in crime prevention within the military proclaimed environment and how MPs can be effective and efficient within this environment.