Darker shades of brown: managing race relations culture among military police in South Africa.

Abstract

This study investigates the intricate connections between race and police culture, exploring how solidarity, isolation, and cynicism vary among military police officers in South Africa: Blacks and Whites. Adopting a quantitative approach, the research examines how racial identity shapes officers' experiences within the force, potentially influencing their sense of belonging, professional detachment, and disillusionment. Using a survey format, the researcher employed a non-experimental ex post facto (cross-sectional) design. This study employs descriptive analysis to describe characteristics that exist within different variables. The study established in general that SANDF MPOs have attitudes in support of police culture themes of solidarity and isolation but do not have a police culture of cynicism according to race variables. However, the study also finds that, in more than half of the SANDF MPOs, the respondents evinced attitudes in support of the police culture theme of cynicism. Statistically significant differences, differences of kind, and differences of degree were found in relation to all race categorical dependent variables (Blacks and Whites). The study provides an empirical peek into military police culture, allows for comparisons between public police culture and military police culture, and contributes novel knowledge to broader police culture in general.