MASERU – THE United States' Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) last Friday completed a two-week training programme on biometric investigations for Lesotho's police.
The training programme also roped in the National Security Services (NSS), the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO), the army as well as the Police Complaints Authority (PCA).

The training programme was held at the Police Training College (PTC) in Maseru.
Speaking at the opening session of the programme, the US ambassador to Lesotho, Maria Brewer, said the training courses“demonstrate the commitment of the United States to join with and assist the Government of Lesotho in building a more robust, capable, and professional law enforcement community in Lesotho, one that offers a safer and more secure environment to its citizens”.

The FBI-led courses included the Scientific Basics of Fingerprints/Palmprints, Face Comparison and Identification, Advanced Comparison for Tenprint Examiners, and Understanding Next Generation Identification.
The US embassy said the training was a continuation of an engagement begun in September 2021 between the FBI and the Lesotho police, which involved FBI assistance in scanning and digitising over 70 000 criminal fingerprint records, some dating back as far as the 1960s.

The United States and Lesotho signed a Law Enforcement Memorandum of Cooperation in November 2021, which facilitates ongoing FBI cooperation with security agencies in Lesotho.
In September last year the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) conducted the first phase of a potential multi-year project to create Lesotho's first national criminal fingerprint database.

The FBI pledged to assess Lesotho's forensic lab and add skills training to modernise the Lesotho police's digital database.
The FBI also trained the local police on technological and investigation best practices as part of a broadened law enforcement partnership between the United States and Lesotho.

The training comes amid howls of protest from civil society on the Lesotho police's brutal policing methods.
At least 19 people die at the hands of the police in Lesotho every year, according to the World Population Review.

The killing rate surpasses that of Rwanda, Burundi, Mali, Angola, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.
Even though these countries annually record many killings by the police than Lesotho their rates are lower than Lesotho per 10 million people.
For example, Nigerian police kill 841 people a year but its killing rate for 10 million is 44.0.

Staff Reporter

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