The latest ranking of the police forces in the
world by the World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) have ranked
Sierra Leone 117 out of 127, making them the 10th worst police force in the world with Nigeria being the worstest.
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| Sierra Leone's male police offices brutally arrest a female suspect |
In an Interview
with ASP, Saio Conteh, Media Two of the
Sierra Leone Police Communications about the latest rankings, said they are
yet to see it and when they have a copy of it then they will respond
adequately.
Talking with the
Executive Director of Campaign for Human Rights International (CHRDI), Abdul
Fatorma, said he is not surprised with the ranking because the police is so
politicized that they have forgotten their role to protect lives and
property.
“The number of
arrests that have been made by the police on the orders from above is so
appalling that every citizen today in the country is not safe as well as being
frustrated that the police have become a tool of the politicians.”
He noted that
the second reason why they will always be at the bottom is due to the wicked
laws in the books that the police use to stop citizens from exercising their
democratic rights to strike.
Fatorma averred
that for decades now the police have been blocking citizens from protesting or
demonstrating, which he said is not good for its democracy.
“The third point
I want to stress is corruption which the citizens have always pointed at. It is
always reported that many police in the traffic division, the checkpoints and
even in the intelligence unit are always asking for bribes, which is not good
for the force.” He said adding that the police force had gone through
rigorous training over the years, but they still continue to do the negative
things that tell on the force.
Corruption in both the governance structure at
large of a country, as well as in the police force specifically, is a crucial
factor that undermines internal security.
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| In a shocking display of brutality, the Kenyan riot policeman then appears to lift his boot-clad foot to stomp on the man's head. |
Corruption is closely correlated with internal
peacefulness, and corruption in the police force, judiciary, and military is
the best predictor of poor internal peace outcomes, as well as deteriorations
in peacefulness in the long run. Corruption reduces the quality of the civil
service, increases inefficiency, and is closely correlated with wasteful
government spending.
The activist
said the police has to do more to regain that confidence from the people and to
make themselves respectable at all times.
The report
states that Africa’s best police service is that of Botswana despite being
ranked 47th best in the world.
This is
according to the World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) released by
two bodies, the International Police Science Association (IPSA) and the
Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
The index ranked
the Rwandan police as Africa’s second best (with global position of 50th)
followed by Algeria (58th), Senegal (68th) and Tunisia (72nd) in that order.
Completing the
top 10 for Africa were, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa and Mali
respectively.
“WISPI measures
the ability of the police and other security providers to address internal
security issues in 127 countries, across four domains, using sixteen
indicators,” authors of the report stated.
The four domains
are capacity, process, legitimacy and outcomes.
Despite the
failure of Africa to break into the top forty, the continent was very prominent
in the lower rankings.
While Tanzania is
ranked 110 globally, the five worst performing countries in the world are
Pakistan (123), Uganda (124), Kenya (125), Democratic Republic of Congo (126)
and Nigeria (127).
At the top of
the global rankings, Europe dominated with eight countries.
Except first
place Singapore and Australia in sixth spot, all the other countries were in
Europe – Finland, Denmark, Austria, Germany (2nd – 5th), Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden and Switzerland (7th – 10th).
The aim of
the WISPI is to, firstly, measure security provider performance
across the four domains of internal security: capacity, process, legitimacy and
outcomes.
Secondly, to see
how these domains relate to each other and finally to track trends in these
domains over time, and to inform the work of security providing agencies,
researchers, and practitioners in the field of peace and conflict studies,
criminology, and police studies. - Africa
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