By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
The Sierra Leone Police says it has put in motion a project designed to overhaul its checkpoint system across the country, with the goal of strengthening national security while preventing corruption within the force.
The project entails the reintroduction of checkpoints in locations where they had been removed and construction of standard facilities in all checkpoints nationwide. Every checkpoint will have attached to it a detention facility to keep suspected criminals, according to a spokesman for the Police force.
The decision, the police said, was taken by the Executive Management Board of the force at a meeting held last Wednesday.
The project, which the police say is costing hundreds of millions of Leones, is under the supervision of Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Operations, Elizabeth Turay.
Samuel Saio Conteh, Deputy Head of Police Media, said this move will not only provide a facelift for the force but will also challenge the general perception that police checkpoints are places for extortion. He said Police officers of various skills would be deployed at the checkpoints for effective surveillance. He said they will include personnel of the Operations Support Division, general duty and Integrated Intelligence Services who would play different roles with the goal of preventing crimes including drugs peddling, and human and arms trafficking.
ASP Conteh said the operation started off with the clearing of abandoned and stationary vehicles at the Mile 38 checkpoint, approximately 25 kilometers east of Freetown.
In April 2018, the SLP, following a joint operation with the Anti-Corruption Commission, dismantled several checkpoints across the country. That followed repeated complaints from the public over rampant corruption within the police. Five traffic police officers were arrested and detained for alleged corruption offences. Following investigations, two of them were dismissed from the force.
According to the Police High Command, the absence of checkpoints in certain parts of the country following that operation apparently created a room for criminals to have a field day.
This, said ASP Conteh, informed the decision to reinstate the dismantled checkpoints. But the Police spokesman said this time round they are not only modernizing their operation, they are also seeking to make it more robust.
Conteh said the project is a borrowed idea from Senegal where he said they have cut down substantially on crime rates.
“The checkpoint model in Senegal is successful as crime was effectively reduced in the country,” he said.
Conteh said part of the plan is that in the long run they will install CCTV cameras at each checkpoint as part of efforts to deter crimes.
“Policing should not be seen as a domestic affair, but it must be looked at from an international perspective. We can only succeed in solving crime incidents with such standardized checkpoints,” he stated.
Personnel strength in the SLP stands at over 10, 000, for a population of over seven million people, in a country known for multiple porous borders, particularly in the north and southeastern regions.
© 2019 Politico Online
