By Ing. Yayah A. B. Conteh.
Like any other police force in the world, the Sierra Leone police force is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring internal security and protecting the lives and property of its citizens. The prevention of crime, including enhancing access to justice constitutes some of its key missions too.
One might be tempted to ask how effective have the Sierra Leone police been in the execution of their national duties, or have they just been branded as a trigger-happy police force in combating crime and security threats nationwide?
The impunity for police abuses is deeply entrenched in our country, such that the majority of the people no longer put trust and confidence in the police force, as clearly highlighted in a past survey. It is regarded as the most corrupt institution in the country, and this is a highly damning record.
The increased rate of crime in our country seem to accelerate at a very alarming rate, evident from robbery attacks, 419 fraudsters, murders, rape and abuse of our womenfolk, including ritual killings from time to time.
Corruption is a major problem faced by the Sierra Leone police, and it is everywhere: In government ministries, agencies and departments, in our societies at large, and even our upcoming youths considered to be the future leaders of tomorrow, have all been corrupted in one way or another.
The responsibility of the security of the nation as a whole squarely rests upon the shoulders of the police force, but they seem to have deviated from that task and rather prefer to embark on the opposite.
It is quite unthinkable to leave out the police force in a country characterized with corruption, arguably the order of the day. New corrupt practices are unearthed as each day passes by, despite governments efforts to curb the practice through the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The police have been accused of demanding bribes on several occasions. Just to extort money from innocent individuals, the police have been found culpable in issues related to unlawful arrests and detentions to threats and acts of violence such as torture. Thus, police corruption wastes resources, undermines security, makes a mockery of justice and decelerates economic development, not to talk of alienating a large proportion of the population from their governments.
Go around today and see the numerous roadblocks mounted at strategic points across the length and breadth of the country.
Sad to say that the era of roadblocks has brought in more damage than salvation we can ever imagine. Policemen now capitalize on them as a means to cleverly request money from drivers and non-drivers alike travelling around the country on a daily basis.
Massive corruption are underway at checkpoints like those at Mile 38, Yonibana Junction, and another prior to entering the city of Bo, to name but just a few, where palms of officers are greased from time to time by drivers in particular in order to enable them pass through these checkpoints unhindered.
At times, instructions from these officers demand that all passengers on board a particular vehicle dismount and walk in a single file pass the checkpoint whilst their luggage are being searched, either for possession of Kush or marijuana, illegal arms and ammunitions, etc. These are all just formality measures on the part of these officers, because as soon as money is exchanged between drivers and officers- at-command post (sometimes done by secretly dropping the money by the side of the travelling vehicle, or taken inside the police booth assigned for settling scores between officers and defaulters), the checking process immediately ceases and the vehicle given the green light to proceed.
There are times when drivers of vehicles no longer dismount from their seats to the police booths as the rules and regulations demand; rather, they simply remain seated in their comfortable seats and drop off the agreed amount of money on the highway itself for the attention of the officers, whilst the very vehicle still continues in motion before disappearing into the distance.
Instances abound of police officers pitching up tent with hardcore criminals to unleash mayhem on society. Theft cases have been exposed in some communities where police officers are involved too, thus demeaning the integrity of the ‘force for good’.
Drivers who are said to operate vehicles and other pieces of equipment believed to be the property of high ranking officers in the country have been caught on several occasions going against the law, sometimes even getting involved in fatal accidents, or conveying harmful unauthorized drugs for which no stringent penalties are instituted. This would have been quite the opposite had the crime been committed by an outsider. Shall we say at this point that to every rule there is an exception, even at the very detriment of citizens and country?
What a shame that a ‘force for good’ can indulge in such practices as highlighted above and still claims to maintain that degree of professionalism devoid of trust and promise for the advancement of the nation at large!
It is claimed that before the civil war of the 1990s, the Sierra Leone Police had become a corrupt and tribalized instrument of state oppression. Its effects seemingly disrupted formal policing, reducing the number of personnel to an appreciably low number.
Thanks to community policing which was begun after the war, and which fundamentally aims at enabling the community’s voice to be heard in how they are policed.
It is disheartening to say here that men who are expected to protect the nation and its citizens are seen to depict a negative image of the force for good, thus robbing them of the respect they otherwise would have commanded.
The recruitment and training of officers in the police force leaves a lot to be desired these days in both past and present governments, especially with politics and tribalism polarizing the appointments and promotions of these personnel.
Modern day recruitment is more about connections, thereby neglecting the able-bodied and more willing ones to get into the system and letting in the non-capable ones instead, hence ensuring continued bad policing.
There is every need for retraining of officers in the police force, including a thorough scrutiny of officers as well as the recruits.
Each category of police officers, be they local council police, traffic police or others, should not regard their posts as meal tickets; rather, their aims and objectives should be to serve the citizens and country at all times, and to the best of their abilities.
Ing. Yayah A. B. Conteh is the former Director of the Mechanical Services Department (MSD) of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA).
Tel. nos : 076640364 / 077718805.
E-mail : [email protected].