Liberian National Police

The Liberian National Police is the national police force in Liberia. INTERPOL says that the LNP's mandate is to "..To maintain public order and safety; To protect people and property; To identify and recover lost and stolen property; To prevent, detect and fight crime; To identify and arrest criminals; and to To enforce the law and testify in court."

After the Second Liberian Civil War, rebuilding the police began in 2004. The Police component of UNMIL (UNPOL) registered 5,000 people who claimed to be members of the LNP. Some had no uniforms, and none had been paid for the past few years. They had survived mostly from extracting bribes from the public. Only the traffic division had smart uniforms and could be seen on duty, as their position made it easier to impose spurious fines on motorists.

According to Friedman (2011), UNPOL and Liberian police leaders, through the Rule of Law Implementation Committee, then "recruited and deployed an initial interim force of 400 former local police officers to work alongside UNPOL in its efforts to drive out former combatants and reclaim police stations in Monrovia. They also implemented UN Quick Impact Projects which included the reopening of police sub-stations, taking over roadblocks, and constructing new mini-stations."

The International Crisis Group wrote in 2011 that 'Over 4,000 officers have been trained, including the armed Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and the specialised Police Support Unit (PSU). 623 (15 per cent) of these officers are women. At a ratio to population of 1:850 and with 65-70 per cent deployed in Montserrado county alone, there are clearly not enough officers to cover the whole country. The ERU, set up in 2008 to combat spiralling armed robbery, is functional and appears efficient, though based on revised needs assessments, it has only 344 officers instead of the originally targeted 500. The PSU is meant to have 600 members by December.'

The LNP is made up of three units: Administration; Operations; Training.

The Liberian Criminal Justice System site says that the Administration and Operations sections consist of:

For policing purposes, Liberia is divided into five geographic areas. They are: 1. Region one (1) – Montserrado, Margibi, and Grand Bassa Counties 2. Region two (2) – Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, and Gbarpolu Counties 3. Region three (3) – Bong, Nimba, and Lofa counties 4. Region four (4) – Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, and River Cess Counties 5. Region five (5) – River Gee, Maryland, Grand Kru Counties.

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