The Sierra Leone Police, according to its 2022 General Crime Statistics Report, recorded 33,157 criminal cases and road accidents countrywide, thus indicating that only 0.39% of the country’s population got involved in crime last year.

The Report was done by the Director of Corporate Affairs of the SLP, AIG Memunatu Khonteh-Jalloh, on behalf of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), William Fayia Sellu.

It takes into account cases reported, as well as those investigated by the Police across the country.

AIG Khonteh-Jalloh made a descriptive analysis of the SLP’s General Crime Statistics and its importance to not only the SLP, but to the safety and security of the entire nation of Sierra Leone.

She informed that crime statistics is a vital tool which the government uses to measure the scale of budgetary allocation to the Police and that it could also be used as a measure of assessment on the performance of the Police by the public and stakeholders.

She said: “The crime statistics can be used to assess the achievements and commitments of the SLP in relation to its Strategic Development Plan which may provide guidance to the IGP, as to where to put more power and more resources for a successful outcome. Crime statistics enables us identify key publics as a target.

“If we have more crimes involving young persons, the only way we can reach out to such persons is by engaging them through community engagements.

“That is why you now see a lot of community relations activities/sensitisations going on in all Police Jurisdictions”, the Director of Corporate Affairs alluded”.

Inspector Smart Menjor, the Statistician attached to the Corporate Affairs Directorate, outlined the statistics as contained in the Report, where we saw a figure of 33,157 Criminal and Road Accident Cases reported to the Police in 2022, thus indicating that only 0.39% of the country’s population got involved in crime in 2022.

With such figures, Inspector Menjor revealed that there is a decrease of 0.11% of persons involved in crime in 2022 than in 2021 which was 0.50% of the nation’s population.

In summary, the 2022 General Crime Statistics indicates that over 99% of the nation’s population is law abiding.

From a modern policing perspective, if we could get a figure below 1% of the population as potential criminals, it goes to show the effectiveness of the SLP and the willingness of citizens to abstain from crime and abide by the law.