By Kefiloe Kajane
The United States Embassy in Maseru this week hosted a team of law enforcement agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) to conduct the first phase of a potential multi-year project to create the Lesotho’s first national criminal fingerprint database.
According to a statement from the Embassy, this is at the request of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service to help address some of the country’s most critical national security priorities, and the CJIS agents scanned and digitized nearly 70,000 criminal fingerprint records, some dating back as far as the 1960s, to begin the first phase of the database system.
The statement indicated that future activities will include an assessment of Lesotho’s forensic lab, the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation, and additional skills training, all moving toward the goal of standing up a modernized digital database.
The statement further indicated that the increased collaboration between Lesotho’s law enforcement agencies and their US counterparts in the creation of the fingerprint database, is a meaningful step forward in significantly advancing Lesotho’s border security priorities by providing the skills and equipment necessary to better identify threats to Lesotho’s national security and aid the country in solving other violent crimes.
“FBI’s visit kicked off a series of skills-sharing activities focused on technological and investigation best practices as part of a broadened law enforcement partnership between the United States and the Kingdom of Lesotho.
“A Diplomatic Security Service visit is planned for later this year to support increased collaboration on human trafficking in Lesotho and Southern Africa. In early 2022, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service team will visit Lesotho to train government and law enforcement agencies on investigation techniques,” the statement said.
