May 31, 2021
By: Mohamed Jalloh
Some things are a certainty in life, their inevitability cannot be averted in any society; notable among those vices that are inescapable in any civilization is crime.
The rational approach to manage crime is to minimize it, because of this hard truth, the act of law breaking can only be controlled to allow peace and law abiding citizens to be protected in the context of the primacy of the rule of law.
For prospective investors, the Crime Statistics report launched by the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) is a major confidence boost for foreign direct investment. No one would dare to invest in an environment where the rule of law only exists in theory but scarcely practicalised. Risk taking is a major variable assessed by investors before venturing into any economic domain. It is employed by many successful businesses, as succinctly pointed out by Bill Gates one of the richest business moguls in the world “Big risk will take you to big leads”.
However, in an environment where the risk is too grave, one can only be a business masochist for wanting to invest in a precarious environment where the life and resources of an investor are highly risk prone. A genuine investor would re-think his decision to spendthrift his resources in an unstable environment, where economic crimes such as counterfeiting of currency, financial scams, fraud, money laundering, fraudulent conversion, false pretense are rife. The aforementioned crimes can create a worrying concern for any government due to their potent knack to negatively impacting on the country`s economy, government and security sector.
Construing from the crime analysis in the report, out of 63,411 offences recorded in Sierra Leone in 2020, a total of 7,786 (i.e. 12.28%) were recorded as economic crimes. Furthermore, Freetown East region has the highest economic offences 3,677 followed by Freetown west with 2,550.
Under the New Direction government notorious fraudsters such as Mohamed Mbakui who uses spectacular means to defraud his victims would find it very difficult to operate because of the vigilance exercised by the law enforcement agencies. In 2020 another infamous fraudster called Makkah Jalloh was also arrested by the Criminal investigation Department (CID) after some East African investors based in Turkey were swindled about $100,000 in a gold scam business.
The proactiveness of the police is informed by the fact that the action of rogue fraudsters operating in the country has the potential to scare away investors and deter genuine investment to materializing, in a country that is eager to spur job creation for the teeming youthful population. On a similar scale as economic crimes, armed robbery also witnessed a significant slump due to the robust night patrol of the paramilitary wing of the SLP.
Of a particular concern to some Sierra Leoneans is the travel advisory of the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone for its citizens intending to adopt the country as an investment destination. The United States claim to enjoy a strong bilateral relationship with Sierra Leone, but such a negative description of life in the country would cast doubts in the minds of prospective investors. In one of its warnings on the Embassy`s website, American Citizens are advised to reconsider their travel plans to Sierra Leone as violent crimes such as robbery and assault occur frequently.
Such a negative description of the security situation in the country would undoubtedly scare potential investors, tourists and well-wishers away from the country.
The development support rendered by the United States to the government and people of Sierra Leone should not serve as a restraining factor to discussing the issue at the highest bilateral level between the two countries. The Bio led government must unequivocally repudiate the action of the United States to paint Sierra Leone in a negative light, ignoring the fact that every country has its own teetering problems including the USA which has the highest homicide rate in the world.
The SLP deserves acclamation, despite the meagre resources at its disposal, night patrols in remote and isolated communities where armed robbery is rife has led to the drastic reduction of burglary.
In order to counter the dubious and unsavory activities of armed robbers, AIG Memuna Conteh Jalloh, head of Cooperate Affairs in the SLP has appealed to the political establishment to furnish the SLP with vehicles and motor bikes to mount a preventive action plan in hard to reach areas.
The insatiable desire for man to live in peace and community with his fellow man necessitates the existence of a police authority in any country.
Therefore, government must provide the tools and wherewithal to effectively engage in night patrol and policing.
There are noteworthy countries in the world that can do without a military force such as Costa Rica, Andorra and some other Asia pacific countries whose external security is tied to the regional super power Australia. But, it is quite impossible for a state to exist without an established internal security architecture. The consequences would be grave if a state were to exist without an established police force. The outcome could lead to a state of nature where man`s life would be solitary, brutish, nasty and short. Therefore, the police takes primacy in any state to provide internal security and plays a pivotal role in maintaining law and order. Outside the shores of the mother land, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) has won praise and admiration in its international peace keeping missions. It excellent conduct is commended at the United Nations thereby making the SLP the most sought after force for peace keeping in the entire African continent.
In spite of its international glory, the reputation of the SLP sometimes take a battering as citizens life are snuffed out by police gunshots during altercations. After perusing the report, I was puzzled to realizing that crimes committed by police officers on civilians are considered as unimportant to be published.
A breakdown of people killed by police fire is not included in the SLP general annual crime statistics report launched by the firebrand Assistant Inspector General (AIG) head of Cooperate affairs Memunatu Conteh Jalloh.
Rather, a regional categorization of assault on police officers whilst on duty was given prominence in the report.
Nonetheless, the analysis of all types of crime reported to the police in the six police command regions is educative and informative to the general public but more importantly the report could be utilized internally for identifying and analyzing patterns and trends in crime. For easy citation and referencing, the crime report can be of immense value to journalists, researchers, intellectuals, students and potential investors who may want to gauge the crime rate in the entire country before taking their bet.