By Allieu S. Tunkara
It was slightly above 9pm yesterday, a police inspector of the Operations Support Division and two General Duty police constables clad in blue-black overall arrest three men who allegedly breached the curfew.
The arrest took place at a checkpoint not too far from Calaba Town Police Station east of Freetown.
The arresting officers had no COVID-19 personal protective equipment on as well as those arrested.
The arresting officers confined the suspects who they escorted to Calaba Town Police station for statements and possibly prefer charges against them.
At the Up-Gun Roundabout, police officers also had a bitter encounter with commercial motorists (okada riders) who attempted to bulldoze a checkpoint to evade arrest.
They ran out of luck as police officers rounded them up and escorted them to the police station for necessary action.
The arrests at Calaba Town and Up-Gun vicinities in Freetown epitomise other arrests conducted at various police stations.
While in police stations, police officers take care of suspects held in custody by visiting them every 30 minutes as required by law, provide food for them, and take them outside either on scene of crime visit or to go to the rest room.
Police officers at the charge office now known as community service centre receive reports from members of the public and direct them to the appropriate offices.
Police officers are in quarantine facilities providing security there; they also assist surveillance teams and contact tracers, and other health officials as back-up in the CVID-19 campaign.
Police officers also provided similar services to the people of Sierra Leone during the Ebola Virus outbreak in Sierra Leone between May 2014 and November, 2016.
The tasks police officers routinely perform when a highly infectious virus strikes place them at great risk.
In the performance of all these risky jobs during a pandemic that has wreaked the most havoc in the world, Police officers do not use protective gears. They are virtually naked, within the context of COVID-19 preventive measures.
As police officers continue to expose themselves to the virus, some members of the public have raised great concerns about it.
One of them is Mr Ahmed Sesay, a retired principal and an important personality at Allen Town Community.
Mr Sesay seems not pleased with the manner police officers carry out their jobs in the midst of one the most contagious disease known to mankind.
“Police officers are really exposed to the virus considering the nature of their job. Government must do something about it,” Mr Sesay appealed.
He also related his experience to Nightwatch about a road accident which occurred at Calaba Town, few days ago, involving a vehicle and a motor cycle.
“I was at the scene of accident when police officers arrived and collected the injured and took them to the government hospital with bare hands and no face masks,” he explained.
Another member of the public has also told Nightwatch that when riots break out, police officers are the ones to be called upon to contain the rioters.
Police response to the riots in North-Western Town of Lunsar and Western-Rural town of Tombo are glowing testimonies.
In the process of containing the riot, he says, police men come into contact with different types of persons whether infected with COVID-19 or not.
The claims of these seeming patriotic Sierra Leoneans have been lent credence to by medical experts who have claimed that a healthy-looking person may carry the COVID-19 virus unnoticed.
Superintendent Brima Kamara is the Head of Police Media in the Sierra Leone Police Force (SLP).
He admits that police officers, by virtue of their jobs, are exposed to the virus.
“In arresting any person suspected to have committed a crime or about to commit crime, you have to touch and confine the person and then escort him to the police station. By so doing, the police put themselves at risk of contracting the virus,” he said.
Mr Kamara however informs this medium that that police officers and stations have been furnished with protective equipment and gears to keep them safe from the virus.
“Veronica buckets, hand gloves and face masks have been provided for all police stations across the country for their use in their day-to-day police work in the COVID-19 period,” He said.
The police spokesman urged the police to make use of the protective gears supplied to them and abide by the rules and regulations pronounced by health officials for the campaign against the virus.
“Police officers who carry out these routine jobs have an obligation to protect themselves by putting on the gears given to them. If they fail to do so, the Inspector-General of police have nothing to do about it,” he said.
Corona Virus Disease first broke out in Guwan Province in China in November, last year and spread fast to other countries in the world.
The virus became a threat to the country’s economies, peace and security. It uncontrollably ravaged lives and health systems, a situation that overwhelmed health officials including nurses and doctors.
Sierra Leone and her neighbouring countries, Guinea and Liberia known for their fledgling health systems were put on the alert owing to the horrific experience they learned from other COVID-19 affected countries and the Ebola Outbreak.
Sierra Leone Government pronounced basic health measures to combat the virus especially closure of borders.
A state of public emergency was proclaimed by President Julius Maada Bio followed by the promulgation of regulations to guide health personnel in their fight against the virus.
Ministry of Health and Sanitation, in collaboration with the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), put out some basic health measures to protect the people of Sierra Leone from the virus.
Harold Thomas, EOC Risks Communications Officer told Nightwatch in a recent interview that all the rules and regulations pronounced by the government in relation to COVID-19 campaign must be obeyed by everyone.
He said the measures are meant to protect health staff, contact tracers and those in the front line.
Police officers constitute one of the basic groups in the front line of the Corona Virus in the country, but their protection remains doubtful.
The public urges government to provide protection for the SLP to be supervised by their authorities to ensure compliance.