By Cpl Sean Burton
AN INVESTIGATION is defined as ‘the search for the truth in the interests of justice’.

MP criminal investigations include many factors that you would not see in a one-hour TV detective show.

The military criminal investigation process is tried and tested .

The process can be long and often very complex.

An investigation is initiated when information is received from any number of sources including units, individual soldiers, informants, external agencies and the examination of documents.

MPs then establish whether or not an offence has been committed and begin further investigation to gather evidence and identify an offender.

The investigation’s recommendations are passed on to the CO of the offender’s unit, or if the investigation is generated out of AHQ, to DPERSOPS-A for further action.

After seeing the MP brief of evidence, a unit CO will then make a decision, generally after consulting their supporting legal officer.

SM 5 MP Coy (SIB), WO1 Shannon Smith, said when the brief is handed over to the unit CO , MPs would have no further input into whether the soldier is charged or not.

“We collect the facts and present them and make a recommendation based on those facts,” he said.

“MPs don’t charge anyone, we collect the information. That sometimes means we have to gather a lot more facts to be able to give the person laying the charges sufficient information.”

MPs conducted 1277 investigations in 2002 with Special Investigation Branch (SIB) conducting 979 of those. This year has already seen an 8 per cent rise in the number of investigations being conducted over the corresponding period in 2002.

An investigator for 16 years, WO1 Smith said that SIB currently had 12 vacancies., which means investigators could have six to eight ongoing investigations at any one time.

“We currently have 54 ARA investigators ... in reality, we have only 35 full-time investigators on the ground at any one time due to deployments, courses and leave.

WO1 Smith said 66 per cent of investigations were finalised within the timelines allocated.

“We have a lot of juggling to do because we may be ordered to stop ongoing investigations and draw on resources to start another more pressing investigation.”

The investigation process could become bogged down because of the nature of the busy operational environment, which makes it hard to track people down for interviewing.

Other factors, which can slow down an investigation, were complainants not giving all the information to investigators in the first instance.

Units sending soldiers on course, on deployments or on leave before they can be interviewed, all added up to a lot of marking time and the investigation going on hold. During an investigation, additional delays in gathering supporting evidence, including forensic evidence testing and document examinations such as medical and telephone records also added to the time taken to complete enquiries.

Provost Marshal-Army Lt-Col Tim Grutzner emphasised that priorities are allocated to serious and sensitive investigations and that some investigations may be delayed to ensure resources are devoted to serious cases.

“Also, MP units are just like other units with members regularly on exercise, courses, leave and deployments,” he said.”

“1 MP Bn, which encompasses all operational MP assets in the Army, has recently undergone an SED Review, which addressed the need for additional SIB personnel. The unit is soon to commence a review of the ‘investigation architecture’ across the RACMP, including structures, procedures, training, equipment and technology. These two initiatives will improve the criminal investigation service 1 MP Bn provides to the Army.”

Unlike a TV detective drama, a military criminal investigation doesn’t have ad breaks with a happy ending all packaged into a one-hour time slot - just the facts.

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