What policing agencies are available in Sierra Leone, and how do citizens perceive them? This study, based on field research in 2005, notes that while SSR in Sierra Leone has focused on state agencies, many other policing agencies offer citizens protection and crime investigation. It is largely these alternative agencies that provide policing services, particularly to society’s marginalised. In fact, youth (often considered a security risk as the ‘idle unemployed’) are providing local security in areas where the state police are rarely seen. The demand for better security is being satisfied by non-state providers.
Before the civil war, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) had become a corrupt and tribalised instrument of state oppression. The war seriously disrupted formal policing, reducing the number of police by a third, and customary policing by Native Authorities was weakened by the flight or death of chiefs. As state and customary policing failed, armed militias, vigilante groups and mob power emerged in their place. The UK and the UN organised the training and restructuring of the SLP.
With crime rates moderate but the formal court system faltering, people must consider the best police agency for their situation. They can choose between agencies authorised by the state, elected work committees, chiefdoms, commercial companies, community groups, youth or their own family.
- The Sierra Leone Police: Despite public perceptions of continuing problems of police corruption, slowness to respond and the use of violence against political dissent, there is not the suspicion and fear of the police that there once was. However, most citizens interviewed dismissed as futile the idea of reporting to the police anything other than major crimes.
- Other state policing: In addition to the 7300 operational police, other state policing agencies include mines monitoring officers, beach wardens and traffic wardens, but they hardly have any impact on the public. There is very little coordination between these minor agencies and the police.
- Policing at the local level – customary structures: Almost everywhere in Sierra Leone, the resolution of anti-social behaviour is regulated by chiefs, using customary law or referrals to state courts. However, he Native Authority police tasked with policing customary law have been seriously weakened.
- State-approved self-policing initiated by the police – partnership boards: This community policing initiative begun after the war aims to increase the community’s voice in how they are policed. While local voices are in practice excluded from anything beyond intelligence gathering, the boards have improved police-community communication and provided investigation, intervention, arrest and dispute resolution.
- State-approved self-policing initiated by the community – peace monitors: This style of policing promotes the resolution of disputes within the community using local capacity and knowledge. The peace monitors have only been introduced in a few places in Sierra Leone, but there is potential for expansion. They offer a system that is effective, accessible and cheap.
- State-approved self-policing initiated by work-based associations: For example, the Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union claims to control many commercial vehicle and minibus parking areas in towns, providing various levels of policing. There is no evidence that these associations are only accepted reluctantly or seen as of limited use.
- Commercial security groups: Numbers of these companies have increased rapidly since the war, with security required for businesses, international organisations, NGOs and residential customers. Most clients do not have confidence in the ability of the SLP to provide protection and seem happy with the commercial alternative.
- Informal security – youth groups: Most young people perceive themselves as ‘guardians of society’, and youth are filling the post-conflict security gap left by the SLP and weakened customary structures. While some older people are wary of youth, in some villages it was the youth alone who provided security.
- Informal security – militias / vigilantes: Militias no longer seem to be present in Sierra Leone, but local mob violence remains. In Sierra Leone there has been no government initiative to provide security at the local level.
