Publications
Weekly Press Briefing
07 July Press Brief
Ms. Yasmina Bouziane, UNMIL Spokesperson Public Information, Yasmina Bouziane, UNMIL Spokesperson, Mr. Marc Amblard, Liberia National Police Inspector-General, and Mr. Gautam Sawang, UN Police Commissioner
NEAR VERBATIM
Yasmina Bouziane (UNMIL Spokesperson)
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. I am once again happy to be with you as UNMIL’s Spokesperson here at the UNMIL weekly press briefing.
I would like to say welcome to our UNMIL Radio listeners throughout Liberia who are listening to our briefing here today. For our guests today, we have with us the Inspector-General of the Liberia National Police, Mr. Marc Amblard. We also have the UN Police Commissioner, Mr. Gautam Sawang, who will be providing support to the Inspector-General during the briefing.
It has been a while since the Liberia National Police and the Inspector General have had the opportunity to address our colleagues of the press in this forum, so it is with great pleasure that we have the Inspector-General with us today. He will among a number of issues be addressing the progress made towards developing and implementing measures put in place for better servicing the community. Also talking about issues and matters being addressed by the LNP such as integrity, accountability, transparency and the various mechanisms put in place to ensure such issues and matters are dealt with in a the serious manner they deserve to the benefit of the citizens taking into account the daily challenges faced on the ground.
As you both our UNMIL radio listeners and our colleagues from the media present here today know, UN POLICE, is here to support the Liberian National Police in their endeavours and way forward towards achieving the many goals set forth for the road ahead, including initiatives on the capacity building and institutional development of the LNP. Today not only in support of the LNP, but also in support of the Inspector-General is the UN Police Commissioner should you have any questions for him as well.
However, before handing over to our distinguished guests, I will bring you some highlights of the latest Mission’s activities.
This morning, our Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Rule of Law, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, addressed participants at the start of a 3-day workshop for civil society organizations from 14 of Liberia’s 15 political sub-divisions. These organizations are principally involved in human rights advocacy throughout Liberia and the training will aid in sharpening their skills enabling better practices on the ground.
Ms. Mensa-Bonsu highlighted that UNMIL’s commitment is built on the belief that in any country, civil society organizations are the essential link between individuals who may not be in a position to stand up for their rights, and the State authorities who have the duty to protect and respect human rights. A strong, independent, ethical civil society that works for human rights can give people a clear voice, and make sure it is heard, she noted.
Also this evening, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ms. Ellen Margrethe Løj, will lead be awarding the officers of the Philippines Military Contingent the UN peacekeeping medal for their contribution to assisting UNMIL’s national partners in consolidating the peace in Liberia.
On Thursday, SRSG Løj will travel to Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County to decorate officers of the Indian Formed Police Unit. While in Grand Gedeh County the UN Envoy will visit a number of locations and meet with local county officials as well as the UN staff on the ground. We will bring you more of those highlights from Zwedru itself on Friday during our UNMIL Radio morning show Coffee Break.
So with this, then for me to now turn over the microphone to our distinguished guest the Inspector-General of the Liberia National Police, Mr. Marc Amblard, Inspector-General, thank you for being with us here today at the UNMIL press briefing and live on UNMIL Radio. The floor is yours.
Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to the media.
I will start by outlining the latest crime statistics and then refer to a number of key areas of LNP development and then conclude by looking towards the future. First, I know that there are huge concerns about crime in Liberia and in particular levels of violent crime such as armed robbery.
In the first six months of 2009 a total of 323 armed robberies were reported. This year 139 armed robberies were reported. This represents a decrease of 57% and more importantly 184 fewer victims of this horrific crime.
These excellent results have been achieved through intelligence led policing. The LNP are using intelligence to position patrols in the right place at the right time. The aim is to present a visible deterrent to criminals, reassure people living in high crime areas and ensure that the ERU and other units respond quickly if an incident occurs so that they can apprehend the offenders before they leave the area. This is complemented by the work of LNP detectives who are targeting the criminal groups that commit armed robberies. By producing good quality evidence at court a number of gang leaders and members have been put behind bars where they cannot harm our communities.
The numbers of rape and corruption of minor cases reported slightly decreased from 292 in the first six months of 2009 to 264 this year. I will return to this subject later.
The numbers of homicide cases reduced slightly from 72 in the first six months of last year to 70 in the same period this year. Virtually all the main categories of crime show a decrease apart from arson where four more offences were recorded this year compared to the first six months of last year. Also drugs’ possession cases increased from 59 to 78 where the figures are a product of increased police activity.
The fact that Liberia is generally peaceful and stable is reflected by the statistics on public order. These show reductions in the numbers of riot and mob violence cases recorded in the first six months of this year compared to last year. In fact the number of incidences of mob violence halved from 25 to 12 with no incident recorded since 30 April 2010.
There are a number of factors at play but I believe that slowly but surely confidence in the LNP is improving. A lot of effort is going into community policing and I want to see my officers working even more closely with civilians so that the LNP tackles the issues that concern them. Community policing gives people more confidence in their police and reduces the likelihood of them taking the law into their own hands. Furthermore by tackling concerns, we will reduce the fear of crime in our communities that by itself negatively impacts on people’s quality of life. We want to create safer communities where people feel less threatened by crime.
Over the last few months the LNP has continued to work on delivering its Strategic Plan. Many such plans gather dust on shelves but this is not the case in the LNP where there are over 300 development projects in the process of being implemented. The projects are designed to increase the operational and institutional capacity of the LNP and by doing so improve the quality of the police service delivered to people living in Liberia.
Importantly the development projects are led by LNP officers with advisory support from UNPOL. The Project Managers are held to account at weekly review meetings that either I or my Deputy for Administration personally chair. The process is challenging, but we want to ensure that progress is maintained.
Over the past few months there have been some significant achievements including improving the management of police stations where we are striving to achieve a consistent approach across Liberia. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been put in place that clearly sets out duties and responsibilities including recording crime allegations. Sets of pre-formatted registers (have sets available to show) have been distributed to all LNP stations replacing a variety of record books that were sometimes purchased at an officer’s own expense. The new record books and registers together with the SOP will increase LNP accountability by ensuring that the right information is recorded in the right way in the right place.
I referred earlier to the number of rapes and corruption of minor cases recorded. The figures are high but I recognise that they represent just the tip of the iceberg. I urge women not to suffer in silence but to report sexual and gender based violence to the LNP. I want to ensure that offenders are brought to justice and held to account for their terrible crimes. The LNP is working with the Ministry of Justice to improve the quality of evidence that is presented for prosecution. Over the last few months the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) sponsored an excellent course that developed the capacity of our Women and Child Protection Services’ officers and their managers. Thanks to the NRC and other donors we now have pre-printed case files that will help investigators to collect strong evidence thereby increasing the numbers of offenders brought to justice. I will conclude by looking ahead and inform you about some developments on the horizon.
My main priority over the next year is rebuilding the capacity and quality of the Police Support Unit (PSU) so that it can support operations across Liberia by providing additional mobile patrols and faster response to public order incidents. The American, French and German governments have been very supportive and in a couple of weeks French Police will run their second public order training course for 150 PSU officers. That is just the start of a programme that will see the PSU increase in size and capability over the coming months so that it is ready to play a key role in next year’s Presidential Election and beyond.
In the next few weeks, I hope to begin testing a new 911 emergency telephone system. Members of the public will be able to call one number – 911 – when they need police help in an emergency such as an armed robbery or violent incident. Calls will be received in the LNP Dispatch Centre and police patrols directed to attend as quickly as possible. 911 will improve the speed of our response and ensure that our citizens receive help in their hour of need wherever they are in Liberia.
I have stated on a number of occasions that increasing the professional standards of the LNP will be the cornerstone of my command. The Professional Standards Division grows in capability every week. I am rooting out bad officers, but I know that I have much more to do. I want to make it easier for people to make a complaint against the police. I am therefore introducing a new complaint form that will be readily available and easy to complete together with a process so that someone can complain about an officer without having to go to the police station where they are based. These measures will increase police accountability and improve standards of professionalism in line with my vision.
But it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge some of the LNP’s challenges. These are uncertain times and the Government of Liberia and our development partners, both face economic constraints. These limit our resources including the number of police vehicles in our fleet and the amount of salary that we can pay a patrol officer. I am in charge of a new police force whose officers are not as well rewarded as they deserve for the difficult job they do in often very challenging working conditions. We should all recognize that these courageous men and women are all members of communities themselves. Every day they achieve amazing things with next to nothing – from arresting armed robbers to rescuing a woman from a swamp. They put themselves in danger when others run away. These brave officers should be respected by all stakeholders, including the media, as they carry out their demanding tasks with very little in the way of resources to help them.
I am therefore looking ahead to a time when UNMIL may no longer be able to support us. I have therefore started to identify where LNP capabilities need to be developed. This will give me a clear picture of what needs to be in place so that the LNP can take over the lead for maintaining internal security. The Government of Liberia is supportive, but cannot provide everything we need. I am therefore pleased to report that the LNP is receiving increasing donor support as international partners see what we are achieving. It’s my responsibility to ensure that this support goes to the areas of greatest need so that the LNP is ready to meet the demands that will present themselves in the future
Finally, in this briefing I have set out how the LNP has cut crime, how the LNP has improved itself and what the LNP will be working on over the coming months. I am constantly seeking new ways of improving the LNP. We know where we want to go and with the support of the Government, the public and international partners I will get the LNP there. There are huge challenges but these can be overcome if we all work together in an effective partnership. Thank you for your continued support.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: William Selmah (West Africa Democracy Radio in Dakar)
In time past, one of the difficulties the justice system has been facing in fighting armed robbery had to do with people being afraid to go in court and testify against suspected armed robbers. What can you say is the situation now? Are people being encouraged to go into the court to testify against alleged armed robbers?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
I think a few weeks ago there was a report in one of the local dailies where six armed robbers were convicted. I think that is the answer to the question. We have arrested these armed robbers; we build a case that sometimes even without the presence of victims we are able to produce evidences to ensure that these armed robbers are tried in court and that evidence produced can lead to a successful conviction. I think I can clearly conclude that the citizenry are finding the courage and the bravery; they understand that this is a partnership we have been communicating throughout and I think they are stepping up more and more to ensure that these criminal elements can be removed from our society and put them to the prison where they belong.
Q: Zayzay Ballah (Radio Veritas)
About three weeks ago, there was an incident reported in Lofa County where a Pakistani solder shot and killed his colleague. What is UNMIL official position on that incident?
And for Mr. Amblard, we also gathered that Police brutality is also on the increase in Voinjama, Lofa County. What comment can you gave to us on that report?
A: Yasmina Bouziane (UNMIL Spokesperson)
Indeed there was unfortunately a fatal shooting that occurred in Voinjama at the Pakistani camp. There is an ongoing investigation and we hope to get to the bottom of it and find out what happened. As the investigation is ongoing, I do not have details on that and I cannot really comment, but it is something that is clearly essential to find out what the root cause was and we will allow the due process to go into the investigation and once we have the findings, we will see what to do about it.
Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
If you have any specific reports of Police brutality, please bring them to our attention. I have not seen any specific report or be informed of specific report of police brutality in Lofa. But if you have a specific report and there is fear there that it will happen, please bring it to our attention and it will be taken care of. Over the last few months we have dismissed over 12 officers and we suspended some 53 others for unbecoming of an officer; so we don’t hesitate in any case of police misconduct, but these cases must be referred to us and you have to be specific.
Q: May Azango (FrontPageAfrica)
You spoke about police brutality; he said Lofa, but I am talking about the incident that occurred at ELWA junction when a police officer beat a taxi driver and I want to know the status of that taxi driver now and what did your office do about it. My second question goes to the tracking down of drugs. You said you beefed up the security in the tracking down of drugs. Usually when they track down drugs we just hear that they burned certain amount of drugs and nothing else we hear. Are the police are in the sales of drugs to other people or we don’t know. Could you please highlight on it.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
On the incident that occurred at the ELWA junction, first let me caution everybody that the same rules of prosecution that applies to any other citizen also applies to the police. I would say that even if it was you today and somebody came and brought a report against you, we will have to say that it is an allegation. Until we have gone through an investigation, will not say the police brutalize the taxi driver. The case is currently before the Professional Standard Division; they are going through the investigation and we will inform you about the outcome of that case. I also want to ask you members of the media: you know when an issue comes up in the press today and it becomes a sensational story, we talk about it, but very rarely will you follow up and see what the police have done. Our station is open, we are friendly and we have nothing to hide. You are welcome to come there.
Investigations are not discussed in the media because you will jeopardize the investigation. Put yourself in the officer’s shoes: if it were you and someone came and place a complaint on you and you felt that you have not done anytime wrong or whether you have done something wrong, you will not want us to put out the information until it comes out officially. That is the procedure. But again there is nothing to hide; we have statistics on complaints that come to the police and we have statistics on the disposition on every one of those cases. If anybody here in this room wishes to come to our office and request for it, we will provide that information to you. We have nothing to hide because we are taking effective action in every single one of these cases that come to our attention and that are the bottom line to it. That case is currently before the Professional Standard Division. When it is concluded you will be informed. It is not the only case where the accusation of police misconduct is not the only case. We have several cases that we are working on. That is the one that was sensationalized. Right after here, you can come with me to my office and we can provide you with all of these statistics.
We cannot continue to work with blind allegation. If you are aware of a police officer selling drugs, bring it to our attention. It is one thing to talk about the problem; if you want to participate and help, come. I can’t be everywhere at once and even our 4000 officers can’t be everywhere to monitor this entire country at once. We are more than happy to root out these kinds of officers from our police; there is no space for them. If you have noticed I have reported the amount of cases for illegal position of narcotics. Why is that increase? This is due to the number of raids that we conduct on a weekly basis on drugs ghettos where they are manufacturing drugs. When we get a raid done, we burn the drugs. We did one about four months ago; we have to inform various organizations who participate; they come the narcotics are not burnt until cases are disposed of. You can’t just go and burn the evidence.
Q: Jennie Fallah (Inquirer newspaper)
I have two questions: it is almost like a tradition where when it rains heavily at night you hear case of armed robbery all over the place. I have been fighting to drive in town now after 12:00am while it is raining and I have not seen any checkpoints from USTC to Old Road. I asked the police officer and he said that because they do not have logistic like vehicle and rain booths. This makes the citizens vulnerable to armed robbers. And the second has to do with issue of the motorcyclists taking more passengers than required, including the clearing the street peddlers from Michelin street. You have always ensured us that mechanisms are being put into place and there safety rules, but they are just still there. The motorcyclists are still on the streets without helmets with more than two passengers. So what is it actually happening? Is it that the police cannot contain marketers or they are just unable to control them?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
In the closing part of my address, I raise a number of issues that are facing us and highest on the list is of course resources. We are not complainants; we will come and do what we can when we can. I don’t necessarily expect any officer to stand in the rain without rain gears although it has not been bought on time because of the lack of resources. We finally did get some through UNDP; they helped us with some raincoats and that distribution will began this week. The other question refers to public disorder situation. Public disorder issues are not issues that you just jump up one day and start attacking in a half-hazard manner; we are aware that the marketers are blocking the road; we are working along with City Hall to determine what the appropriate situation is to respond to where they suppose to be. We can’t allow people to obstruct the normal flow of traffic and that will not happen, but we are not going to jump in the streets and start beating people off the street. It has to be done in a planned and organized faction and that is the bottom line to it.
Even with the motorcyclist everyday if you pass by any police station you will see dozens of motorbikes parked over there. We have to balance the need for public disorder and we need more police officers and perhaps we need more logistic and support. Which part of the budget are we willing to support to increase our capacity? If you are willing to increase police budget, I will be very happy because we need it. The argument they always made emphasis on has to do with health or education and I think it is a national discussion that needs to be held. But for ourselves we work with what we have and if they did not have rain coats and at the same time in the month of June, June 2009 we had 55 armed robbery; June 2010 we have come down to 29, so let us not get ourselves worked out into a panic stage and think that everything is coming to an end because we don’t see checkpoints a few months ago there was some report that things were not happening because the police had too much checkpoints. Let’s not panic because the situation is under control. Zero is what I will want in armed robbery cases. We want to come here and report 1, 2, 3 we zero. But the resource to accomplish that type of reduction is just not available. And am not going to expect my police offers to stand in the rain and be abused one day because they allegedly subdue somebody. We have to balance it and we have to have that understanding of what it takes to accomplish this job.
Q: Sallu Swaray (Analyst newspaper)
You once advocated to government to increase salaries of police officers from US$ 70 dollars to US$300. I want to know how far this process has gone. There are public outcries at night that you don’t find the police response to crime at night even though you have lots of logistic. Some police officers are with the contention that they earn low salary they don’t have time to respond to crime.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
Let me speak frankly about this issue. Sometime ago the minister of information alluded to the low salaries of journalists, and there the tendencies in some cases to compromise. You have a social obligation and so do we. I think when you feel the pinch in your pocket you know the pinch in the other man’s pocket. I want and I don’t think I speak for myself; I think generally there is a desire to ensure that our officers and am sure other people from other areas of the public sector are adequately compensated in order that they may be above any tendency for compromise. But you cannot draw blood from a rock. We understand that and no matter how hard I talk about it or who I force to do it, government does not work that way. I know one of the biggest champions I have in the entire government is the President herself. And she can’t wave the magic hand and make it happen. Trust me my brother; that means it cannot happen.
What we will do and our officers understand this is continue to wake up in the morning and try to make the sacrifice to public service that we all subscribe to. And I continue to tell them that we all agree that the money is not enough, but you knew what the money was when you sign up. We will just continue to fight to improve the social welfare, and every single LNP officer. I am sure my colleagues at Defense, National Security Agency, Bureau of Immigration, Customs, I am sure they are all fighting for their officers involved in law enforcement. Because you see, before it reaches to everybody my view is that when you gave somebody a badge and a gun, you have to be prepared to ensure that they don’t have worries at home. Don’t have issues burning on their mind when they go out in the streets to enforce the law. I say this and I also caution my officers that this is what they signed up for and they know what the rules are. So abide by the rules because it will not be tolerated when one breaks the rules. Even when one is having money problems at home, that is not my worry at this point because that is not an excuse to go and break the rules.
Q: Mai Azango (FrontPageAfrica)
How effective is your women and children protection unit in the various police depots around Monrovia? The other time - I think a month or two ago - we heard that a police officer rapped two girls at the Zone 5 Police Depot. How far did that case go and what became of the rape victim?
Usually we hear that the Ministry of health and Social Welfare and the Police have safe haven for way-ward children and abandoned women. Do you have safe haven at your place there? We see these way-ward children loitering in the streets and they are so many. The police are not doing anything; when you ask, they say no money and when you go to the Health and Social Welfare Ministry, they say nothing is put in place to create save haven for those kinds of people. So I want to know what the police are doing about that.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
On the women and children, I reported earlier that there was a small decrease in sexual and gender-base violence. It is a unit of the LNP that also has some of its limitation. I think there has been a transition in the amount of aggression that we use in investigating sexual and gender-based crimes. However, in every situation there is a victim or an alleged victim and a complainant, and until the investigation is complete and whole, we cannot necessarily jail people until we have sufficient evidence to charge and send them to court.
I want to alert you to one thing which we find in the society. Many times when cases are reported, the families will go and compromise many times. The same old police will go and complain. Out of all the cases we have received throughout this year in the majority of cases, the complainant will go there and just say sorry, and we are using resources to go through all of these cases. When we come back the complainant goes and compromises; we don’t get that information. These are some of the things I will like for you to see these type of statistics; it helps to build your information and your understanding of what is happening. We are very serious about gender and sexual-based violence. There is a unit set up at the Ministry of Justice. They evaluate and access cases that are reported to the police; they strategize on how we will prosecute those cases and invariably we are getting good results from these cases that are with us.
With respect to the officer that allegedly raped someone at the station, of course you know from the minute that case was reported, we jumped into it and the officer was disrobed, undergoing investigation. If there is any semblance of guilt, he is going to court. We don’t deal with criminals at Professional Standard; we just want to have an idea as to what happened before officers are disrobed and sent to court. Because they will be in any criminal act that an officer is involved in, they are sent to court. They are immediately disrobed and sent to court. If the court finds them innocent they are welcome back to the police; if they are found guilty, they go to prison. Administrative cases we deal with are in- house. I would say miner complaints such as rudeness are handed over to Professional Standard.
Q: D. K. Sengbeh (Informer newspaper)
What is the extent to which the ticketing process is being monitored by the police headquarters? My question comes from the background that there are too many unconfirmed reports that police officers are conniving with drivers and instead of issuing the ticket, drivers give them money on the side and go after violating the rule.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
The transparency and the accountability process involved with the ticket are clear when a ticket is written and issued. Everybody knows what happens there. It is very transparent. We have statistics on how many tickets were issued, how much was paid and how much are outstanding. If I told you I was not aware of situation incidents where traffic officers might be involved in taking the money instead of issuing the ticket, I will be lying to you and you know I don’t do that. This has to come to my attention. I hope that by the next briefing please take note because I have the specific case in which I have evidence and action will be taken. I don’t want to go into too many details. I will say take a note and remind me for the next briefing because I will have further information from you on that. Part of our professional standards on that duty is not only to wait for you to bring complaints, but for us to be proactive and ensure that some of those officers that will gave the rest of our excellent officers a bad name. It will not be tolerated. So I don’t take sides on those kinds of issues. Anytime it comes up we will handle it and deal with it expeditiously.
Q: Varney Karneh (University of Liberia Radio)
You spoke about the reintroduction of the 911. Clearly tell the Liberia people what is the difference from the old 911? And what are penalties for abusers? And the issue of traffic officers arresting taxi drivers for alleged traffic violations, at times I have been in couples of situation where I saw traffic officers taking the driver’s keys and also taking away the driver’s license. How long should a driver’s license remain in possession of a traffic officer in a situation like that?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
We are taking some very detailed steps towards regulating or normalizing the manner in which traffic incidents are handled. Because of some gaps, the police by law are responsible for issuing drivers’ licenses. This helps up to keep a record of all operators in the country, weather it is motorcycle or vehicle. Currently we are not doing that; the Ministry of Transport is doing that. It has been that way, but we will be taking over that role. But before we get to take over that role, we have to put processes in place and I will get to the 911 and will tell you the processes it will take for me to announce it. We are working hard towards it. We have to put processes in place to ensure that if John Brown gets a ticket in the traffic, his driver’s license will be taken down. We don’t have to take your driver’s license; you can still operate a vehicle for a minor infraction. It is just a minor traffic infraction. But there have to be some sort of punishment, weather it is a fine or whatsoever for now. You have to take the license for them to go and pay the fine as a deterrent for not continuing to violate those traffic regulations. So it is something we will have to tolerate for a little bit. Until such time, we hoping and praying that that time will be sooner than later. I don’t want to say too much here, but just trust that I am working hard that those processes are in place. We are working at the Public Safety Department at the Ministry of Justice, working along with the minster to ensure that when we put this measure in place, it will create a more convenient driving environment. It will also create an enforcement environment and we are working along with the Legislature. As you all will recalled the Legislature invited me to the House Committee on National Security to give information on what we are doing. This is public disorder. It is not armed robbery. And not because we have controlled armed robbery, so we forget about everything else. There are many, many things we need to work on. And this is one of them, and we are just making sure that we take careful steps and we plan properly so that when we come out with it, it won’t be a more public nascent than what is happening now.
But I promise that when I come out with it, you will appreciate it. You might get one. I don’t know if you are an operator but I know I will probably get some tickets myself. With respect to the 911, we took the same careful approach for planning and designing, until we have reached to a point where we have to recognize what the failures were in the previous attempt to set up a 911. We thank five service providers in Liberia. You know if you got CELLCOM, and I got LONESTAR, you would be calling different numbers. That means you have to have about 15 telephones in the dispatch centre for the operators to answer. These telephones are basically on one line. So if five persons call that one line at the same time, they are going to get a busy signal. The second part of it is that basically we have two communications system, one with the ERU and one with our regular police patrols. We are combining the two. To cut down on the response time, if anybody that calls on an armed robbery or an incident of violence, right there in the same room, the response time will be cut down severely. We are hoping to put it into a great system and we know that there is a technology available, for example, someone is difficult to give addresses. But we are hoping to work along with the phone companies to come up with a technique that will allow us to give real time positioning to our officers in the car. They will know a GPS coordinate to move to an area.
These are things we want to do; it takes time to work out the technology and not all of it is available readily. For some of it, we have to negotiate. But really I will like say a big thank you to all the GSM companies for working along with us, most especially LONE STAR that has been very instrumental in providing the hardware at this point and have taken great steps to bring this together. So when it eventually comes out, we will have to commend them. This will hopefully benefit the public. But anything we try to do will be carefully be planned and executed.
Q: Zayzay Ballah (Radio Veritas)
You talked about the reduction of armed robbery from 2009 to 2010, but I will like to know from you that as you are putting in new mechanism in at fighting armed robbery in Monrovia, we all know that these guys are building up to divert your attention elsewhere. I would like to know from you the status of the highway patrol that was put in place to fight armed robbery.
Vehicles were donated to the LNP. Today we no longer see these vehicles on the highways; they all parked at the LNP depots. For example, if you go at your headquarters now, vehicles are parked there. If you can just provide us with information why these vehicles are no longer on the highway and what other strategy are you putting in place in fighting highway armed robbery?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
Let me just say that in addition to armed robbery on the highway, what is of major concern for us is the repair of many of the highways. We are anticipating the increase in road traffic accidents. That is our major concern and so it is not in our interest to have the cars parked for nothing. So there must be a good reason why those vehicles are parked.
And I will tell you what they are. We estimate that we need to effectively execute our work so that we have fewer complaints. Very rarely will we come to these conferences and you say what the police are doing. You will come and say maybe police doing too much. We estimate that we need about 150 vehicles in our fleet and that is an estimate probably on the low side. It does not include group transporters; it does not include crowd disbursement cannon trucks, just basic transport. We are far short of that 150; in fact we are lass than the 50. Why? The money to buy vehicles is high; it is one of the highest call centres to run the police organization. Let us look at what we can afford and let look for less expensive vehicles available so that we can have more from our money so that we can develop it as a fleet instead of buying one Nissan here, one Volkswagon and one Toyota here. You get one fleet and try go get bulk pricing, then we get that supplier to take our mechanic for training and make sure that spare parts are available at all times.
Next we have to ensure that the Ministry of Finance understands the need for constant maintenance of the vehicles. There is no need to keep buying vehicles. We just need to maintain the vehicles. As a result of a brake shoe, a car is parked because we are not getting any funds for spare parts. You know I can’t go and take it from the Lebanese man or the Nigerian man. So it will park because I won’t take an officer and put him/her into a vehicle with no brakes. And I have to be honest and tell you what the problems are. Sometime it is just the brake shoe, while at times the transmission burst. Maybe we don’t have a transmission to go and fix at the garage far too expensive because our mechanics have not had specific training in specific area. This is what we are doing about that. I suspect that by this year, you will see a difference in that area as well.
Again, I don’t like to talk about this until we get to the point, but again all of your concerns also concern me because I am also a member of the community. It impacts. Nobody will distinguish my house from the next man’s house and say we will not go there. I live in a community where am surrounded by other people who are affected. So we are doing everything everyday to ensure that we try to improve every single day. The L N P started from zero in 2004, and I think we can all agree that from 2004 up till present, there is a steady increase on the performance of the police.
NEAR VERBATIM
Yasmina Bouziane (UNMIL Spokesperson)
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. I am once again happy to be with you as UNMIL’s Spokesperson here at the UNMIL weekly press briefing.
I would like to say welcome to our UNMIL Radio listeners throughout Liberia who are listening to our briefing here today. For our guests today, we have with us the Inspector-General of the Liberia National Police, Mr. Marc Amblard. We also have the UN Police Commissioner, Mr. Gautam Sawang, who will be providing support to the Inspector-General during the briefing.
It has been a while since the Liberia National Police and the Inspector General have had the opportunity to address our colleagues of the press in this forum, so it is with great pleasure that we have the Inspector-General with us today. He will among a number of issues be addressing the progress made towards developing and implementing measures put in place for better servicing the community. Also talking about issues and matters being addressed by the LNP such as integrity, accountability, transparency and the various mechanisms put in place to ensure such issues and matters are dealt with in a the serious manner they deserve to the benefit of the citizens taking into account the daily challenges faced on the ground.
As you both our UNMIL radio listeners and our colleagues from the media present here today know, UN POLICE, is here to support the Liberian National Police in their endeavours and way forward towards achieving the many goals set forth for the road ahead, including initiatives on the capacity building and institutional development of the LNP. Today not only in support of the LNP, but also in support of the Inspector-General is the UN Police Commissioner should you have any questions for him as well.
However, before handing over to our distinguished guests, I will bring you some highlights of the latest Mission’s activities.
This morning, our Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Rule of Law, Ms. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, addressed participants at the start of a 3-day workshop for civil society organizations from 14 of Liberia’s 15 political sub-divisions. These organizations are principally involved in human rights advocacy throughout Liberia and the training will aid in sharpening their skills enabling better practices on the ground.
Ms. Mensa-Bonsu highlighted that UNMIL’s commitment is built on the belief that in any country, civil society organizations are the essential link between individuals who may not be in a position to stand up for their rights, and the State authorities who have the duty to protect and respect human rights. A strong, independent, ethical civil society that works for human rights can give people a clear voice, and make sure it is heard, she noted.
Also this evening, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ms. Ellen Margrethe Løj, will lead be awarding the officers of the Philippines Military Contingent the UN peacekeeping medal for their contribution to assisting UNMIL’s national partners in consolidating the peace in Liberia.
On Thursday, SRSG Løj will travel to Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County to decorate officers of the Indian Formed Police Unit. While in Grand Gedeh County the UN Envoy will visit a number of locations and meet with local county officials as well as the UN staff on the ground. We will bring you more of those highlights from Zwedru itself on Friday during our UNMIL Radio morning show Coffee Break.
So with this, then for me to now turn over the microphone to our distinguished guest the Inspector-General of the Liberia National Police, Mr. Marc Amblard, Inspector-General, thank you for being with us here today at the UNMIL press briefing and live on UNMIL Radio. The floor is yours.
Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to the media.
I will start by outlining the latest crime statistics and then refer to a number of key areas of LNP development and then conclude by looking towards the future. First, I know that there are huge concerns about crime in Liberia and in particular levels of violent crime such as armed robbery.
In the first six months of 2009 a total of 323 armed robberies were reported. This year 139 armed robberies were reported. This represents a decrease of 57% and more importantly 184 fewer victims of this horrific crime.
These excellent results have been achieved through intelligence led policing. The LNP are using intelligence to position patrols in the right place at the right time. The aim is to present a visible deterrent to criminals, reassure people living in high crime areas and ensure that the ERU and other units respond quickly if an incident occurs so that they can apprehend the offenders before they leave the area. This is complemented by the work of LNP detectives who are targeting the criminal groups that commit armed robberies. By producing good quality evidence at court a number of gang leaders and members have been put behind bars where they cannot harm our communities.
The numbers of rape and corruption of minor cases reported slightly decreased from 292 in the first six months of 2009 to 264 this year. I will return to this subject later.
The numbers of homicide cases reduced slightly from 72 in the first six months of last year to 70 in the same period this year. Virtually all the main categories of crime show a decrease apart from arson where four more offences were recorded this year compared to the first six months of last year. Also drugs’ possession cases increased from 59 to 78 where the figures are a product of increased police activity.
The fact that Liberia is generally peaceful and stable is reflected by the statistics on public order. These show reductions in the numbers of riot and mob violence cases recorded in the first six months of this year compared to last year. In fact the number of incidences of mob violence halved from 25 to 12 with no incident recorded since 30 April 2010.
There are a number of factors at play but I believe that slowly but surely confidence in the LNP is improving. A lot of effort is going into community policing and I want to see my officers working even more closely with civilians so that the LNP tackles the issues that concern them. Community policing gives people more confidence in their police and reduces the likelihood of them taking the law into their own hands. Furthermore by tackling concerns, we will reduce the fear of crime in our communities that by itself negatively impacts on people’s quality of life. We want to create safer communities where people feel less threatened by crime.
Over the last few months the LNP has continued to work on delivering its Strategic Plan. Many such plans gather dust on shelves but this is not the case in the LNP where there are over 300 development projects in the process of being implemented. The projects are designed to increase the operational and institutional capacity of the LNP and by doing so improve the quality of the police service delivered to people living in Liberia.
Importantly the development projects are led by LNP officers with advisory support from UNPOL. The Project Managers are held to account at weekly review meetings that either I or my Deputy for Administration personally chair. The process is challenging, but we want to ensure that progress is maintained.
Over the past few months there have been some significant achievements including improving the management of police stations where we are striving to achieve a consistent approach across Liberia. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been put in place that clearly sets out duties and responsibilities including recording crime allegations. Sets of pre-formatted registers (have sets available to show) have been distributed to all LNP stations replacing a variety of record books that were sometimes purchased at an officer’s own expense. The new record books and registers together with the SOP will increase LNP accountability by ensuring that the right information is recorded in the right way in the right place.
I referred earlier to the number of rapes and corruption of minor cases recorded. The figures are high but I recognise that they represent just the tip of the iceberg. I urge women not to suffer in silence but to report sexual and gender based violence to the LNP. I want to ensure that offenders are brought to justice and held to account for their terrible crimes. The LNP is working with the Ministry of Justice to improve the quality of evidence that is presented for prosecution. Over the last few months the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) sponsored an excellent course that developed the capacity of our Women and Child Protection Services’ officers and their managers. Thanks to the NRC and other donors we now have pre-printed case files that will help investigators to collect strong evidence thereby increasing the numbers of offenders brought to justice. I will conclude by looking ahead and inform you about some developments on the horizon.
My main priority over the next year is rebuilding the capacity and quality of the Police Support Unit (PSU) so that it can support operations across Liberia by providing additional mobile patrols and faster response to public order incidents. The American, French and German governments have been very supportive and in a couple of weeks French Police will run their second public order training course for 150 PSU officers. That is just the start of a programme that will see the PSU increase in size and capability over the coming months so that it is ready to play a key role in next year’s Presidential Election and beyond.
In the next few weeks, I hope to begin testing a new 911 emergency telephone system. Members of the public will be able to call one number – 911 – when they need police help in an emergency such as an armed robbery or violent incident. Calls will be received in the LNP Dispatch Centre and police patrols directed to attend as quickly as possible. 911 will improve the speed of our response and ensure that our citizens receive help in their hour of need wherever they are in Liberia.
I have stated on a number of occasions that increasing the professional standards of the LNP will be the cornerstone of my command. The Professional Standards Division grows in capability every week. I am rooting out bad officers, but I know that I have much more to do. I want to make it easier for people to make a complaint against the police. I am therefore introducing a new complaint form that will be readily available and easy to complete together with a process so that someone can complain about an officer without having to go to the police station where they are based. These measures will increase police accountability and improve standards of professionalism in line with my vision.
But it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge some of the LNP’s challenges. These are uncertain times and the Government of Liberia and our development partners, both face economic constraints. These limit our resources including the number of police vehicles in our fleet and the amount of salary that we can pay a patrol officer. I am in charge of a new police force whose officers are not as well rewarded as they deserve for the difficult job they do in often very challenging working conditions. We should all recognize that these courageous men and women are all members of communities themselves. Every day they achieve amazing things with next to nothing – from arresting armed robbers to rescuing a woman from a swamp. They put themselves in danger when others run away. These brave officers should be respected by all stakeholders, including the media, as they carry out their demanding tasks with very little in the way of resources to help them.
I am therefore looking ahead to a time when UNMIL may no longer be able to support us. I have therefore started to identify where LNP capabilities need to be developed. This will give me a clear picture of what needs to be in place so that the LNP can take over the lead for maintaining internal security. The Government of Liberia is supportive, but cannot provide everything we need. I am therefore pleased to report that the LNP is receiving increasing donor support as international partners see what we are achieving. It’s my responsibility to ensure that this support goes to the areas of greatest need so that the LNP is ready to meet the demands that will present themselves in the future
Finally, in this briefing I have set out how the LNP has cut crime, how the LNP has improved itself and what the LNP will be working on over the coming months. I am constantly seeking new ways of improving the LNP. We know where we want to go and with the support of the Government, the public and international partners I will get the LNP there. There are huge challenges but these can be overcome if we all work together in an effective partnership. Thank you for your continued support.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: William Selmah (West Africa Democracy Radio in Dakar)
In time past, one of the difficulties the justice system has been facing in fighting armed robbery had to do with people being afraid to go in court and testify against suspected armed robbers. What can you say is the situation now? Are people being encouraged to go into the court to testify against alleged armed robbers?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
I think a few weeks ago there was a report in one of the local dailies where six armed robbers were convicted. I think that is the answer to the question. We have arrested these armed robbers; we build a case that sometimes even without the presence of victims we are able to produce evidences to ensure that these armed robbers are tried in court and that evidence produced can lead to a successful conviction. I think I can clearly conclude that the citizenry are finding the courage and the bravery; they understand that this is a partnership we have been communicating throughout and I think they are stepping up more and more to ensure that these criminal elements can be removed from our society and put them to the prison where they belong.
Q: Zayzay Ballah (Radio Veritas)
About three weeks ago, there was an incident reported in Lofa County where a Pakistani solder shot and killed his colleague. What is UNMIL official position on that incident?
And for Mr. Amblard, we also gathered that Police brutality is also on the increase in Voinjama, Lofa County. What comment can you gave to us on that report?
A: Yasmina Bouziane (UNMIL Spokesperson)
Indeed there was unfortunately a fatal shooting that occurred in Voinjama at the Pakistani camp. There is an ongoing investigation and we hope to get to the bottom of it and find out what happened. As the investigation is ongoing, I do not have details on that and I cannot really comment, but it is something that is clearly essential to find out what the root cause was and we will allow the due process to go into the investigation and once we have the findings, we will see what to do about it.
Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
If you have any specific reports of Police brutality, please bring them to our attention. I have not seen any specific report or be informed of specific report of police brutality in Lofa. But if you have a specific report and there is fear there that it will happen, please bring it to our attention and it will be taken care of. Over the last few months we have dismissed over 12 officers and we suspended some 53 others for unbecoming of an officer; so we don’t hesitate in any case of police misconduct, but these cases must be referred to us and you have to be specific.
Q: May Azango (FrontPageAfrica)
You spoke about police brutality; he said Lofa, but I am talking about the incident that occurred at ELWA junction when a police officer beat a taxi driver and I want to know the status of that taxi driver now and what did your office do about it. My second question goes to the tracking down of drugs. You said you beefed up the security in the tracking down of drugs. Usually when they track down drugs we just hear that they burned certain amount of drugs and nothing else we hear. Are the police are in the sales of drugs to other people or we don’t know. Could you please highlight on it.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
On the incident that occurred at the ELWA junction, first let me caution everybody that the same rules of prosecution that applies to any other citizen also applies to the police. I would say that even if it was you today and somebody came and brought a report against you, we will have to say that it is an allegation. Until we have gone through an investigation, will not say the police brutalize the taxi driver. The case is currently before the Professional Standard Division; they are going through the investigation and we will inform you about the outcome of that case. I also want to ask you members of the media: you know when an issue comes up in the press today and it becomes a sensational story, we talk about it, but very rarely will you follow up and see what the police have done. Our station is open, we are friendly and we have nothing to hide. You are welcome to come there.
Investigations are not discussed in the media because you will jeopardize the investigation. Put yourself in the officer’s shoes: if it were you and someone came and place a complaint on you and you felt that you have not done anytime wrong or whether you have done something wrong, you will not want us to put out the information until it comes out officially. That is the procedure. But again there is nothing to hide; we have statistics on complaints that come to the police and we have statistics on the disposition on every one of those cases. If anybody here in this room wishes to come to our office and request for it, we will provide that information to you. We have nothing to hide because we are taking effective action in every single one of these cases that come to our attention and that are the bottom line to it. That case is currently before the Professional Standard Division. When it is concluded you will be informed. It is not the only case where the accusation of police misconduct is not the only case. We have several cases that we are working on. That is the one that was sensationalized. Right after here, you can come with me to my office and we can provide you with all of these statistics.
We cannot continue to work with blind allegation. If you are aware of a police officer selling drugs, bring it to our attention. It is one thing to talk about the problem; if you want to participate and help, come. I can’t be everywhere at once and even our 4000 officers can’t be everywhere to monitor this entire country at once. We are more than happy to root out these kinds of officers from our police; there is no space for them. If you have noticed I have reported the amount of cases for illegal position of narcotics. Why is that increase? This is due to the number of raids that we conduct on a weekly basis on drugs ghettos where they are manufacturing drugs. When we get a raid done, we burn the drugs. We did one about four months ago; we have to inform various organizations who participate; they come the narcotics are not burnt until cases are disposed of. You can’t just go and burn the evidence.
Q: Jennie Fallah (Inquirer newspaper)
I have two questions: it is almost like a tradition where when it rains heavily at night you hear case of armed robbery all over the place. I have been fighting to drive in town now after 12:00am while it is raining and I have not seen any checkpoints from USTC to Old Road. I asked the police officer and he said that because they do not have logistic like vehicle and rain booths. This makes the citizens vulnerable to armed robbers. And the second has to do with issue of the motorcyclists taking more passengers than required, including the clearing the street peddlers from Michelin street. You have always ensured us that mechanisms are being put into place and there safety rules, but they are just still there. The motorcyclists are still on the streets without helmets with more than two passengers. So what is it actually happening? Is it that the police cannot contain marketers or they are just unable to control them?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
In the closing part of my address, I raise a number of issues that are facing us and highest on the list is of course resources. We are not complainants; we will come and do what we can when we can. I don’t necessarily expect any officer to stand in the rain without rain gears although it has not been bought on time because of the lack of resources. We finally did get some through UNDP; they helped us with some raincoats and that distribution will began this week. The other question refers to public disorder situation. Public disorder issues are not issues that you just jump up one day and start attacking in a half-hazard manner; we are aware that the marketers are blocking the road; we are working along with City Hall to determine what the appropriate situation is to respond to where they suppose to be. We can’t allow people to obstruct the normal flow of traffic and that will not happen, but we are not going to jump in the streets and start beating people off the street. It has to be done in a planned and organized faction and that is the bottom line to it.
Even with the motorcyclist everyday if you pass by any police station you will see dozens of motorbikes parked over there. We have to balance the need for public disorder and we need more police officers and perhaps we need more logistic and support. Which part of the budget are we willing to support to increase our capacity? If you are willing to increase police budget, I will be very happy because we need it. The argument they always made emphasis on has to do with health or education and I think it is a national discussion that needs to be held. But for ourselves we work with what we have and if they did not have rain coats and at the same time in the month of June, June 2009 we had 55 armed robbery; June 2010 we have come down to 29, so let us not get ourselves worked out into a panic stage and think that everything is coming to an end because we don’t see checkpoints a few months ago there was some report that things were not happening because the police had too much checkpoints. Let’s not panic because the situation is under control. Zero is what I will want in armed robbery cases. We want to come here and report 1, 2, 3 we zero. But the resource to accomplish that type of reduction is just not available. And am not going to expect my police offers to stand in the rain and be abused one day because they allegedly subdue somebody. We have to balance it and we have to have that understanding of what it takes to accomplish this job.
Q: Sallu Swaray (Analyst newspaper)
You once advocated to government to increase salaries of police officers from US$ 70 dollars to US$300. I want to know how far this process has gone. There are public outcries at night that you don’t find the police response to crime at night even though you have lots of logistic. Some police officers are with the contention that they earn low salary they don’t have time to respond to crime.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
Let me speak frankly about this issue. Sometime ago the minister of information alluded to the low salaries of journalists, and there the tendencies in some cases to compromise. You have a social obligation and so do we. I think when you feel the pinch in your pocket you know the pinch in the other man’s pocket. I want and I don’t think I speak for myself; I think generally there is a desire to ensure that our officers and am sure other people from other areas of the public sector are adequately compensated in order that they may be above any tendency for compromise. But you cannot draw blood from a rock. We understand that and no matter how hard I talk about it or who I force to do it, government does not work that way. I know one of the biggest champions I have in the entire government is the President herself. And she can’t wave the magic hand and make it happen. Trust me my brother; that means it cannot happen.
What we will do and our officers understand this is continue to wake up in the morning and try to make the sacrifice to public service that we all subscribe to. And I continue to tell them that we all agree that the money is not enough, but you knew what the money was when you sign up. We will just continue to fight to improve the social welfare, and every single LNP officer. I am sure my colleagues at Defense, National Security Agency, Bureau of Immigration, Customs, I am sure they are all fighting for their officers involved in law enforcement. Because you see, before it reaches to everybody my view is that when you gave somebody a badge and a gun, you have to be prepared to ensure that they don’t have worries at home. Don’t have issues burning on their mind when they go out in the streets to enforce the law. I say this and I also caution my officers that this is what they signed up for and they know what the rules are. So abide by the rules because it will not be tolerated when one breaks the rules. Even when one is having money problems at home, that is not my worry at this point because that is not an excuse to go and break the rules.
Q: Mai Azango (FrontPageAfrica)
How effective is your women and children protection unit in the various police depots around Monrovia? The other time - I think a month or two ago - we heard that a police officer rapped two girls at the Zone 5 Police Depot. How far did that case go and what became of the rape victim?
Usually we hear that the Ministry of health and Social Welfare and the Police have safe haven for way-ward children and abandoned women. Do you have safe haven at your place there? We see these way-ward children loitering in the streets and they are so many. The police are not doing anything; when you ask, they say no money and when you go to the Health and Social Welfare Ministry, they say nothing is put in place to create save haven for those kinds of people. So I want to know what the police are doing about that.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
On the women and children, I reported earlier that there was a small decrease in sexual and gender-base violence. It is a unit of the LNP that also has some of its limitation. I think there has been a transition in the amount of aggression that we use in investigating sexual and gender-based crimes. However, in every situation there is a victim or an alleged victim and a complainant, and until the investigation is complete and whole, we cannot necessarily jail people until we have sufficient evidence to charge and send them to court.
I want to alert you to one thing which we find in the society. Many times when cases are reported, the families will go and compromise many times. The same old police will go and complain. Out of all the cases we have received throughout this year in the majority of cases, the complainant will go there and just say sorry, and we are using resources to go through all of these cases. When we come back the complainant goes and compromises; we don’t get that information. These are some of the things I will like for you to see these type of statistics; it helps to build your information and your understanding of what is happening. We are very serious about gender and sexual-based violence. There is a unit set up at the Ministry of Justice. They evaluate and access cases that are reported to the police; they strategize on how we will prosecute those cases and invariably we are getting good results from these cases that are with us.
With respect to the officer that allegedly raped someone at the station, of course you know from the minute that case was reported, we jumped into it and the officer was disrobed, undergoing investigation. If there is any semblance of guilt, he is going to court. We don’t deal with criminals at Professional Standard; we just want to have an idea as to what happened before officers are disrobed and sent to court. Because they will be in any criminal act that an officer is involved in, they are sent to court. They are immediately disrobed and sent to court. If the court finds them innocent they are welcome back to the police; if they are found guilty, they go to prison. Administrative cases we deal with are in- house. I would say miner complaints such as rudeness are handed over to Professional Standard.
Q: D. K. Sengbeh (Informer newspaper)
What is the extent to which the ticketing process is being monitored by the police headquarters? My question comes from the background that there are too many unconfirmed reports that police officers are conniving with drivers and instead of issuing the ticket, drivers give them money on the side and go after violating the rule.
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
The transparency and the accountability process involved with the ticket are clear when a ticket is written and issued. Everybody knows what happens there. It is very transparent. We have statistics on how many tickets were issued, how much was paid and how much are outstanding. If I told you I was not aware of situation incidents where traffic officers might be involved in taking the money instead of issuing the ticket, I will be lying to you and you know I don’t do that. This has to come to my attention. I hope that by the next briefing please take note because I have the specific case in which I have evidence and action will be taken. I don’t want to go into too many details. I will say take a note and remind me for the next briefing because I will have further information from you on that. Part of our professional standards on that duty is not only to wait for you to bring complaints, but for us to be proactive and ensure that some of those officers that will gave the rest of our excellent officers a bad name. It will not be tolerated. So I don’t take sides on those kinds of issues. Anytime it comes up we will handle it and deal with it expeditiously.
Q: Varney Karneh (University of Liberia Radio)
You spoke about the reintroduction of the 911. Clearly tell the Liberia people what is the difference from the old 911? And what are penalties for abusers? And the issue of traffic officers arresting taxi drivers for alleged traffic violations, at times I have been in couples of situation where I saw traffic officers taking the driver’s keys and also taking away the driver’s license. How long should a driver’s license remain in possession of a traffic officer in a situation like that?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
We are taking some very detailed steps towards regulating or normalizing the manner in which traffic incidents are handled. Because of some gaps, the police by law are responsible for issuing drivers’ licenses. This helps up to keep a record of all operators in the country, weather it is motorcycle or vehicle. Currently we are not doing that; the Ministry of Transport is doing that. It has been that way, but we will be taking over that role. But before we get to take over that role, we have to put processes in place and I will get to the 911 and will tell you the processes it will take for me to announce it. We are working hard towards it. We have to put processes in place to ensure that if John Brown gets a ticket in the traffic, his driver’s license will be taken down. We don’t have to take your driver’s license; you can still operate a vehicle for a minor infraction. It is just a minor traffic infraction. But there have to be some sort of punishment, weather it is a fine or whatsoever for now. You have to take the license for them to go and pay the fine as a deterrent for not continuing to violate those traffic regulations. So it is something we will have to tolerate for a little bit. Until such time, we hoping and praying that that time will be sooner than later. I don’t want to say too much here, but just trust that I am working hard that those processes are in place. We are working at the Public Safety Department at the Ministry of Justice, working along with the minster to ensure that when we put this measure in place, it will create a more convenient driving environment. It will also create an enforcement environment and we are working along with the Legislature. As you all will recalled the Legislature invited me to the House Committee on National Security to give information on what we are doing. This is public disorder. It is not armed robbery. And not because we have controlled armed robbery, so we forget about everything else. There are many, many things we need to work on. And this is one of them, and we are just making sure that we take careful steps and we plan properly so that when we come out with it, it won’t be a more public nascent than what is happening now.
But I promise that when I come out with it, you will appreciate it. You might get one. I don’t know if you are an operator but I know I will probably get some tickets myself. With respect to the 911, we took the same careful approach for planning and designing, until we have reached to a point where we have to recognize what the failures were in the previous attempt to set up a 911. We thank five service providers in Liberia. You know if you got CELLCOM, and I got LONESTAR, you would be calling different numbers. That means you have to have about 15 telephones in the dispatch centre for the operators to answer. These telephones are basically on one line. So if five persons call that one line at the same time, they are going to get a busy signal. The second part of it is that basically we have two communications system, one with the ERU and one with our regular police patrols. We are combining the two. To cut down on the response time, if anybody that calls on an armed robbery or an incident of violence, right there in the same room, the response time will be cut down severely. We are hoping to put it into a great system and we know that there is a technology available, for example, someone is difficult to give addresses. But we are hoping to work along with the phone companies to come up with a technique that will allow us to give real time positioning to our officers in the car. They will know a GPS coordinate to move to an area.
These are things we want to do; it takes time to work out the technology and not all of it is available readily. For some of it, we have to negotiate. But really I will like say a big thank you to all the GSM companies for working along with us, most especially LONE STAR that has been very instrumental in providing the hardware at this point and have taken great steps to bring this together. So when it eventually comes out, we will have to commend them. This will hopefully benefit the public. But anything we try to do will be carefully be planned and executed.
Q: Zayzay Ballah (Radio Veritas)
You talked about the reduction of armed robbery from 2009 to 2010, but I will like to know from you that as you are putting in new mechanism in at fighting armed robbery in Monrovia, we all know that these guys are building up to divert your attention elsewhere. I would like to know from you the status of the highway patrol that was put in place to fight armed robbery.
Vehicles were donated to the LNP. Today we no longer see these vehicles on the highways; they all parked at the LNP depots. For example, if you go at your headquarters now, vehicles are parked there. If you can just provide us with information why these vehicles are no longer on the highway and what other strategy are you putting in place in fighting highway armed robbery?
A: Marc Amblard (Inspector-General, Liberia National Police)
Let me just say that in addition to armed robbery on the highway, what is of major concern for us is the repair of many of the highways. We are anticipating the increase in road traffic accidents. That is our major concern and so it is not in our interest to have the cars parked for nothing. So there must be a good reason why those vehicles are parked.
And I will tell you what they are. We estimate that we need to effectively execute our work so that we have fewer complaints. Very rarely will we come to these conferences and you say what the police are doing. You will come and say maybe police doing too much. We estimate that we need about 150 vehicles in our fleet and that is an estimate probably on the low side. It does not include group transporters; it does not include crowd disbursement cannon trucks, just basic transport. We are far short of that 150; in fact we are lass than the 50. Why? The money to buy vehicles is high; it is one of the highest call centres to run the police organization. Let us look at what we can afford and let look for less expensive vehicles available so that we can have more from our money so that we can develop it as a fleet instead of buying one Nissan here, one Volkswagon and one Toyota here. You get one fleet and try go get bulk pricing, then we get that supplier to take our mechanic for training and make sure that spare parts are available at all times.
Next we have to ensure that the Ministry of Finance understands the need for constant maintenance of the vehicles. There is no need to keep buying vehicles. We just need to maintain the vehicles. As a result of a brake shoe, a car is parked because we are not getting any funds for spare parts. You know I can’t go and take it from the Lebanese man or the Nigerian man. So it will park because I won’t take an officer and put him/her into a vehicle with no brakes. And I have to be honest and tell you what the problems are. Sometime it is just the brake shoe, while at times the transmission burst. Maybe we don’t have a transmission to go and fix at the garage far too expensive because our mechanics have not had specific training in specific area. This is what we are doing about that. I suspect that by this year, you will see a difference in that area as well.
Again, I don’t like to talk about this until we get to the point, but again all of your concerns also concern me because I am also a member of the community. It impacts. Nobody will distinguish my house from the next man’s house and say we will not go there. I live in a community where am surrounded by other people who are affected. So we are doing everything everyday to ensure that we try to improve every single day. The L N P started from zero in 2004, and I think we can all agree that from 2004 up till present, there is a steady increase on the performance of the police.
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