The Ministry of Public Security (MPS, Vietnamese: Bộ Công an (BCA))[1] is a public agency and one of the biggest ministry of the Government of Vietnam, performing the function of state management of security, order and social safety; counterintelligence; crime prevention investigation; fire prevention and rescue; execution of criminal judgments, judgment enforcement not subject to imprisonment, custody or temporary detention; legal protection and support; State management of public services in sectors and fields under the Ministry's state management.

[3][4] The three departments provided protection for Ho Chi Minh and other CPV leaders in time for September 2, 1945 when independence was declared for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

[4] On February 21, 1945, Ho Chi Minh signed Decree 23, which unified the three bureaus into the Vietnam People’s Police Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

[9] The MPS has also played a role in the surveillance and persecution of dissident poets, writers, and political prisoners, and in the ongoing efforts to repress the Vietnamese democracy movement, especially since the 2006 foundation of Bloc 8406.

For example, lawyer and labor union activist Trần Quốc Hiền was sentenced in 2007 to five years imprisonment for "endangering state security", membership in Bloc 8406, and writing online articles titled, "The Tail", which critically described life under MPS surveillance.