By Mohamed Juma Jalloh
For Sierra Leone to take a nosedive in the Global Peace Index, after occupying the pinnacle as the most peaceful country in West Africa, signals deterioration in the maintenance of law and order. There is a routine of charging suspects to court for various felonious crimes, such as murder, robbery with aggravation, sexual penetration and arson, etc.
On the flip side, law enforcement officials, such as the police, can aggravate conditions of negative peace by discharging fire arms leading to mortalities. There are three fatal police shootings that are worth chronicling. Initially, there were the marijuana farm raids in Mathebo and Massengbeh villages (Tonkolili District), where a youth was gunned down. Another was the shooting of a teenager in the Tonko Limba by-election. Lastly, after the deployment of armed military men in Sahn Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun District, two people were shot dead for protesting the dubious acquisition of farmland by a Bio-fuel European company called Socfin.
Other conflagrations, that have the potential in derailing the country`s enviable position on the Global Peace Index, are political tension, land disputes, communal violence emanating from hotly contested inter-area football tournaments, inter clique violence, snatching of mobile phones and bags and the frequent security press releases by the American Embassy in Sierra Leone. Among all the foreign missions operating in Sierra Leone, the American Embassy is renowned for the issuance of press releases to its citizens. The mission is proactive in alerting American residents to undertake safety precautionary measures.
American citizens are normally advised to avoid public places and warned not to display expensive ornaments such as jewelries, watches and mobile phones during crowd pulling events. Such warnings, from the American Embassy, have international reputational damage to Sierra Leone.
Prospective tourists or visitors to the country must require a rethink of their decision before coming to Sierra Leone.
Reclaiming the top spot in the West African peace index needs a re-calibration of policing strategies. This could be properly amplified with the effective collaboration and coordination of the Security and Justice Sector stakeholders. The role of the triumvirate institutions, in the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), Judiciary and the Sierra Leone Correctional Service (SLCS), is crucial if the country were to regain its lost Peace Index glory.
Poor coordination, resulting from the loose relationship among the three institutions, has led to the recycling of dangerous criminals in and out of prisons. To put things into context, these dangerous criminals enter and re-enter Pademba Road Maximum Security Prisons for virtually the same offences.
In spite of the fact that no two cases are exactly the same, but the underlining motivation in committing such crimes might be the same. Weak laws and the inability to provide sufficient evidence during trials, alongside the corrupt nature of the judiciary, have aided the intermittent release of recidivist criminals. The situation seems hopeless and the scenario resembles a vicious circle.
Despite the human and logistical challenges faced by the SLP, reasonable efforts are made to charge suspected offenders to court following the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). For example, in murder trials, protracted judicial proceedings often caused by the absence of jurors and prosecution witnesses creates displeasure on the victim`s family.
After spending colossal amounts of money in the quest for justice and with no end in sight for the closure of the matter, the initial family interest is lost and dampened. After several adjournments, the matter is no longer heard in an open court whiles the victim is still remanded in prisons. At this stage the interlocutory intervention of the Legal Aid Board (LAB) ensures the unconditional acquittal of suspects.
LAB was established by an Act of Parliament in 2012 to give poor Sierra Leoneans legal representations and some opportunity to acquire justice. The LAB takes advantage of the judicial loopholes by setting dangerous criminals free. These criminals are reintegrated into society without any form of rehabilitation, ignoring the threats posed to peace loving Sierra Leoneans.
Such freed criminals get emboldened by the frequent releases from jail, which is aided and facilitated by LAB. A simple confrontation or argument can lead to threatening remarks such as “Ar dae go lay don for you,” which can be translated to mean that “the prisons is calling them for rest”.
As of January 1st 2020, President Bio gave a presidential pardon to 72 inmates after a recommendation of the Prerogative of Mercy Committee. The criteria used in selecting qualified candidates for the presidential pardon remains questionable, because reasons are not proffered to the general public.
Candidates accused of felonious offences, with no possibility of parole, often make the list of freed candidates to the astonishment of the victim`s families and the general public. Theses inmates are freed without any form of “criminal profiling” to prevent the commitment of subsequent crimes. They are released from prisons without acquiring their scientific bio-details that can be helpful in generating clues to the perpetrator of a particular crime.
The SLP is hugely challenged when it comes to providing incontrovertible forensic evidence from perpetrators of crimes such as murder and rape. Historically, in Sierra Leone, criminal investigations have relied on such concepts as physical evidence, eyewitnesses and confessions. However, in today`s increasingly complex world, societies find themselves dependent in technology and its various offshoots and incarnations.
Presently, the criminal investigator must recognize that a vast amount of evidence collected from a crime scene could be corroborated. The evidence can be juxtaposed to that of the Bio-data details of the profiled criminal that is stored in a computer generated “log file”. That is why the use of criminal profiling in criminal investigations and law enforcement should not be underestimated.
The Scientific Support Unit (SSU) of the SLP is overwhelmed by paper files, which should be transformed into automated computer files to guarantee safety and protection. The reliance on technology has had a ripple effect on every aspect of society and the criminal investigations division of the SLP must be technologically capacitated to effectively carry out its mandate.
Another crime that has skyrocketed with the advancement of technology is Cybercrime. Even presidents are not spared; they are caricatured in the most denigrating shapes and forms. In most cases they are depicted on sexual scenes and often on top of a lavatory prompting angry reactions from law enforcement officials and supporters.
Cybercrime protection officers are often powerless in tracking offenders because the crime is sometimes committed across borders. This is so because a large gap continues to exist in legislative compatibility across international borders.
Often overlooked in regards to criminal profiling is the issue of Cybercrime. The idea that an individual committing a crime in cyberspace can fit a certain outline (a profile) may seem far-fetched, but evidence do regularly exists in Cyber criminals originating as disgruntled insiders of a company or an institution.
For the time being, there is a paralysis on the part of law enforcement officials and many people are living with the distasteful negative characteristics of cybercrime. In the meantime, multilateral state collaborations and the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) with social networking sites would help in providing clues and exposing the real identity and apprehending Cybercrime perpetrators.