On Tuesday 18th June 2024, the Head of INTERPOL in the Sierra Leone Police – D/CSP Genevieve Tity Cowan has revealed that the Sierra Leone Police is on the verge of receiving modern equipment to set up 100 criminal data collection workstations across the country to address Transnational Organized Crime. The equipment, she said, are to be provided by INTERPOL through the West Africa Police Information System (WAPIS) program. This came out during the first WAPIS National Steering Committee Meeting held at the Atlantic Lumley Hotel along Lumley-Aberdeen beach road.
Doubling as the Director of Crime Services and a representative of the Inspector General of Police, Commissioner Joseph Ibrahim Lahai appreciated the successes of the implementation of the WAPIS program.
“The digitalization of criminal data especially the creation of an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for law enforcement agencies is big and involving; but it’s the pathway in fighting Transnational Organized Crime in West Africa. That’s the main reason we are grateful for the WAPIS program being implemented by INTERPOL”, said CP Lahai.
He continued that the I-24/7 system earlier set up by the program has gained much devidend in easing police operations when it comes to data collection, analysis, sharing, referencing and inter-institutional interfacing.
Speaking on behalf of government as the Keynote speaker, the Chief of Staff at Office of National Security Mr. Francis Languba Keily acknowledged the fact that issues of Transnational Organized Crime are borderless and they need urgent and robust action. He further noted that the intervention of European Union to have been funding the program has always been a boost to government as resources needed to bring the program thus far are not readily available. He closed by pleading with EU representatives to think about an exit strategy by developing a transition program to allow government raise the needed resources to support the program.
“If you cease sponsoring the program by 2025, it will be challenging for government to continue from where you stop because such funds are not readily available and government has to create a budget line for it. On that note, it is but necessary to device a transition plan so government will plan itself well to fit into that expenditure”, Mr. Keily pleaded with the EU representatives.
The meeting summed up with deliberations on technical and professional aspects of the WAPIS program.
Credit: SLP Media Team
Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Wednesday, June 26th , 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)