The Inquirer
Monrovia, Liberia

Distributed by

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia

Posted May 6, 2004

Credible reports speak of uneasiness within the Criminal Investigation Division(CID) of the Liberia National Police over recent appointments made to that department by the NTGL Chairman Charles Gyude Bryant.

Sources told The INQUIRER that the CID has several subsets that include INTERPOL, Criminal Intelligence Unit(CIU), and the Technical Investigation Unit(TIU) all of which function under only one Assistant Director, who is referred to as Director of Police for CID Affairs.

However, the sources said the recent appointment of Mr. Robert Bear as Assistant Director for the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the CID would create a parallel administration within the CID, something that would obviously undermine productivity.

The sources have also intimated of indications that an Assistant Director for INTERPOL may soon be appointed. “How can you have three Assistant Directors to operate the CID, when there should be only one”, one source wondered, and added, “such move is unprecedented.”

A veteran police officer said that since the Liberia National Police was organized, there have always been one Assistant Director for the CID. He said the CIU, INTERPOL and TIU all fall under the directorship of the Director of the CID.

He said if something is not done to reverse this situation, the CID will not be effective and efficient because there would be “too many generals than enlisted men.”

The former police officer said if Assistant Directors are appointed for the various units of the CID, that will render the CID Director powerless in the discharge of his duties and would even create problems for the overall Director of Police in handling issues concerning the CID as there would be too many Assistant Directors in that department, all of them being equals.