The Sierra Leone Police of recent times are embroiled in one issue after another especially relating to their lack of respect for the rule of law. It is bad when an enforcer of the law becomes the law breaker. Their recent modus operandi of unnecessarily arresting people who vent out their views on critical national state issues is becoming alarming and very irresponsible for at least a perceived Force for Good.
Various reports by Rights Groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Commission, Sierra Leone and the National Elections Watch have criticized the Police for extra-judicial killings, suppression of freedom of assembly and association and political intimidation of opposition parties in the run-up to the 2012 elections. The Rights groups have proffered a number of recommendations for possible reforms. The Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have accepted some of the recommendations of these organizations on the general conduct of Policing in the country over the years, while referring to some as very unfair to the Sierra Leone Police.
Quite recently again, the Police has displayed similar actions again which have sent tongues wagging by disseminating a press release bent on curtailing the freedom of the Press. They have threatened to use the country’s unpopular seditious libel law to silence the press.
The move has been condemned by the President of SLAJ who is of the strongest view that the move is not in line with President Bio’s democratic record so far.
‘’If the Police thinks writings in the print media and radio discussion programs have got factual errors, let them use the Independent Media Commission or the country’s Ministry of Information rather than moving towards silencing the press’’ Kelvin Lewis noted.
They have no business in poking their nose in areas that they have no remit in as far as their mandate is concerned.
In all of this we have not heard the position of the oversight Ministry with regard to such police excesses in recent time. They are plagued with lack of the required resources to effectively establish their presence and Police every nook and cranny of our communities. This has got a correspondingly negative impact on Police response time to crime. This is what should be preoccupying every serious minded Police organization rather than unnecessarily arresting politicians and civil society activists that criticize the Government.
We want the New Direction to also manifest itself in the Police.