The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. William Fayia Sellu and the Strategic Capacity Group (SCG) for the second time met on Monday January 9, 2023, at Police Headquarters in Freetown, to discuss a 10-day training session for 120 personnel, which commenced on 9th January, 2023, at the Sierra Leone Peacekeeping and Law Enforcement Academy (SILEA). The training is dubbed: Electoral Security Management.
It could be recalled that sometime in November 2022, the SCG, which is an affiliate body to the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone offered to provide adequate training for Police Officers on Electoral Security Management, as part of preparations aimed at ensuring a credible, free and fair policing of the forthcoming multi-tier elections.
The ongoing training of 120 Police Officers has been categorized into six focused groups; with each group handling some thematic issues. The intention is to facilitate a quicker learning process, thereby augmenting the two previously trained batches of Police Officers (12 master trainers and 60 training of trainers) on the same subject matter.
The total number of personnel trained will then cascade the knowledge gained to the over fourteen thousand (14,000) personnel that constitute the Force plus personnel to be trained from the sister forces, on the same subject matter (Electoral Security Management).
The IGP is optimistic that if such a goal is achieved, it would surely maximize the professional output of Police Officers, and the expectation is that it would translate to heighten safety and security throughout the electioneering process across the country.
During the meeting, which was spearheaded by the Director of Training – AIG Sylvester Koroma, the IGP overwhelmingly expressed his sincere gratitude to the SCG on behalf of the SLP for what he described as ‘an opportunity that comes at the appropriate time in need’. He further noted that training is very essential to Police Officers because it helps to capacitate and further enhances their professionalism. He thanked the SCG for the gesture and pleaded with them to consider other areas of training for the SLP, after the electioneering process.
SLP MEDIA TEAM