Over the past decade, ICT has been touted as an asset for the modernization of several business sectors. In the security sector, there are many applications for law enforcement.

On Thursday, February 3, the Gabonese technical and scientific police received,  in Libreville, a batch of technical equipment from France. The equipment was handed over by the French ambassador to Gabon, Alexis Mikhaël Lamek, and received by the Minister of State, Minister of the Interior, Lambert-Noël Matha. It will help Gabonese authorities better fight crime, document fraud, or child and women abuse by contributing to the establishment of a digital criminal database.

Among the equipment received are scanners, an episcope for the coding and reading of analytical characters of fingerprints, various equipment for the biometric signaling of persons in custody. "This new equipment will especially help to boost the functioning of the Directorate of Technical and Scientific Police, making it more efficient when searching for objective proof of guilt or innocence," said the Minister of the Interior.

Last year also it should be recalled, France gave similar equipment to the Gabonese police, notably as part of the French-Gabon internal security partnership.

The digital criminal file will enable the Gabonese police to link criminals to their crimes more easily. It will do so by helping them rapidly identify matches and differences between prints, marks, and clues secured on crime scenes or from the victim(s) during a police investigation.

Adoni Conrad Quenum