MILITARY GEOGRAPGY 314 PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT

INTRODUCTION

Saldanha Bay Municipality (WC014) is a local municipality located on the West Coast of South Africa, approximately 140 kilometers north of Cape Town. It forms part of the West Coast District Municipality (DC1), situated in the Western Cape Province. The municipality is bordered in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, in the north by the Bergrivier Municipality and the east by the Swartland Municipality.

The Saldanha Bay Municipality covers an area of 2015 km² and have a coastline of 238km. Saldanha has the largest natural port in Africa and the area is earmarked as a regional motor for the development of the Western Cape Province. Saldanha Bay is one of the best places to work, stay and relax.

The above information can be directly accessed on the Saldanha municipality website on: http://www.sbm.gov.za/pages/about/about.html

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Many incidences have taken place in the Military Base area in Saldanha. The Commandant of Military Academy and the Officer Commanding of SAS Saldanha have tasked you as the GIS Officer to assist them in dealing with the incidences.

You are tasked to analyse the crime pattern within the military base and also investigate whether there is a relationship between crime that takes place in the surrounding areas and in the military base.

CRIME PATTERNS IN SALDANHA MUNICIPALITY

SAS Saldanha Military Base is within Saldanha Municipality that is surrounded by Local Towns such as St Helena Bay, Saldanha, Vrendenburg, Langebaan, Hopefield, Jacobsbaai, Dwarskersbos, Yzerfontein, Velddrift Laaiplek, Aurora and Paternster which forms part of the Municipality. The crime patterns presented below are for the Saldanha municipality.

The map below indicates Towns within the Municipality where possible crime rates are can be high as indicated on the Crime in Saladanha Bay Municipality for the year 2013/2014.

Saldanha Bay is a small quiet area and currently has a low crime rate compared to previous years. The population is dominated by people from other provinces who are here for work purposes in the Military, Transnet, Sea Harvest and Saldanha steel. People originating from Saldanha are mostly employed in sectors that don’t offer benefits such as finance, insurance, real estate, business services, wholesale and retail trade, catering and accommodation, agriculture, fishing and manufacturing.

The above map indicates a ten kilometer (10 km) radius for all the Police Stations in the Saldanha Bay Municipality. This helps us estimate the response time of police within the radius range.
The contact details and crime prevention support link below:

Crime Prevention and Support Police Stations 

South African Police Services support link:

SAPS Services

The below map indicates the radius of five kilometer radius range for only Saldanha SA Police Station and SAS Military Police. 

CRIME PATTERN ANALYSES IN THE SAS MILITARY BASE

With the crime statistics of Saldanha Municipality presented above, SAS Military Base experiences similar crime patterns as reported by the Military Police located inside the Navy Military Unit. The access to the military base being so easy, the community finds it easy to come do reconnaissance at any time to gather all useful security information needed to know how to plan for illegal activities such as theft, burglaries, malicious damage to property and theft of state property.

SAS Saldanha Military Base is grouped into two parts sharing the ground area SAS Military Base, being the Navy Unit and Military Academy.

The following crimes patterns and incidences were investigated within the Military Base. The mostl reported incidences occurring within the Military Base reported to the Military Police are as follows:

·         House brake-in.

·         Domestic Violence.

·         Drug abuse.

·         Emotional and physical Abuse

·         Rape.

·         Stolen Cell phones

Some of the incidences unfortunately are not always reported to the police as they are seen as small incidences that can be solved verbally or people just deciding not to report them as nothing is done when reported to the security stakeholders (Military Police, Military Guards, and Community Forums)

Some of the incidences not reported are listed below:

•   Stolen Clothes on the washing lines.
•  Attempted break-ins.
• Stolen Garden and outside equipment and material.
• Missing Digital Devices (Smartphones, USB storage device, Desktops & Laptops).
• Reckless driving in the unit lines.
• Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Statistics of Crime for the year 2014/2015 from the Military Police

According to Saldanha Military Police crime statistics, the most committed crimes in the base are:

 Year 2014:     House breaking

                ·         Theft

                ·         Assault

                ·         Negligent driving

Year 2015:     Burglaries at residential premises

               ·         Burglaries at work premises

               ·         House breaking

               ·         Negligent loss of kit, equipment, arms.

               ·         Theft

               ·         Stolen property

               ·         Common robbery

Year 2016: Burglaries at business premises, work premises.

                       Theft out of motor vehicle

                       Common Robbery

                       

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF CRIME WITHIN THE AREA

The community is able to enter the base without having to pass the main gate due to the base not being completely fenced. The access to the military base being so easy, the community finds it easy to come into the base at anytime for different reasons such as to visit friends or seek jobs in the military base. This leads the civilians into seeing possible opportunities of stealing state property that is not guarded or equipment that can be sold to get small change.

List of possible causes:

• ·         Not monitored or uncontrolled access to the Unit. (Easy access)
• ·         No security features like security cameras and screened access.
• ·         High number of cars within the area.
• ·         Nature reserve within the area.
• ·         Entertainment places surrounding the area (Club/ Taverns)

The below digitized map is developed to emphasise on the main access routes that criminals can use as entrance to target areas of interest.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS USING GIS SOFTWARE AND APPLICATIONS

Application of crime mapping

Crime analysis is both a profession and a set of techniques. These techniques can be used for security to become more effective through better information. The GIS software technologies have new opportunities for use of crime mapping to support crime prevention. The functions provided in web-based crime mapping are less than in most traditional crime mapping software. Therefore, existing works of web-based crime mapping and self-developed maps focus more on supporting community policing rather than analytical functions such as pattern analysis and prediction.

The information that an analysis provides can help:

·         Solve crimes

·         Develop effective strategies and tactics to prevent future crimes

·         Find and apprehend offenders

·         Prosecute and convict offenders

·         Improve safety and quality of life

·         Optimize internal operations

·         Prioritize patrol and investigation

·         Detect and solve community problems

·         Plan for future resource needs

·         Enact effective policies

·         Educate the public

This information is collected from: http://solutions.arcgis.com/defense/templates/military-tools

The following Possible solution can be implemented at SAS Miltary Base using GIS maps.

Using Buffering Security and police response is confirmed with location. The closer the police station the better the access.

• ·          Increase Security Visibility.
• ·         Put on security cameras at the main Gates.
• ·         Controlled access with permits to the visitors.
• ·         Promote crime awareness and reporting of incidences at all times

REFERENCES  

The following source documents, internet websites and books were used to analyse and give possible solution to the incidences within the SAS Military Base Area.

Military Police - SAS Military Base. (Crime Statistics 2014,2015 and 2016)
SAPS - Saldanha Police Station. (Crime Statistics 2011 - 2016)

Books:

GEO314 prescribed book Geographic Information System book. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Chang, K., McGrawHill, 6th ed, 2012 (or 7^th ed. 2014)

Geographic Information Systems and Science, Longley PA, Goodchild MF, Maguire DJ & ARhind DW., Wiley, 2001

Geographic Information Systems:  An Introduction, Bernhardson T., Wiley, 3de ed, 2002., 

Fundamentals of Geographical Information Systems, DeMers MN, Wiley, 4ed, 2009.

Geographic Information Analysis, D. O’Sullivan & DJ. Unwin, 2^nd ed, Wiley, 2010, 

Internet:

Saldanha Municipality website: http://www.sbm.gov.za/pages/about/about accessed [accessed 13 April 2016, 19:00]

Arc GIS website: http://solutions.arcgis.com/defense/templates/military-tools  [accessed 13 April 2016, 21:00]