IGP Defends Police Response, Urges Public to Help Fight…

IGP Defends Police Response, Urges Public to Help Fight…

Inspector General of Police Seedy Mukhtar Touray has defended the response of the Gambia Police Force to recent violent crimes, rejecting claims that police inaction and lack of resources are driving members of the public to take the law into their own hands. Speaking during a question-and-answer session following his national address on recent crimes on Wednesday, Touray acknowledged that the police face mobility challenges but insisted that officers are supplied with fuel and that efforts are underway to strengthen the force’s operational capacity. Responding to a question on whether public confidence in the police was declining because of delayed responses to crime reports, the IGP disputed suggestions that police vehicles were grounded because of fuel shortages. “I will tend to disagree with you on one area,” Touray said. “When you say police stations… don’t have fuel. If you want to confirm or ascertain what I am coming to say, you can join me in my car and go to headquarters, and I will show you the landscape of the fuel allocations allocated to each police vehicle throughout the length and breadth of this country.” He explained that while not every police station has a vehicle, each operational vehicle is allocated fuel, adding that deployment depends on operational needs and available resources. “We don’t have the resources to deploy a vehicle in every police station in this country,” he said. “But we are highly optimistic that in the next coming months the police will have a large fleet of vehicles, and this will likely ameliorate the mobility challenges that we are faced with.” Asked whether the recent spate of murders reflected a worsening crime situation, Touray said the police maintain crime statistics through daily, weekly and monthly reports and invited journalists to examine the data. “We have our daily, our weekly, our monthly reports. This is what informs our statistics unit to prepare these reports,” he said. On police welfare, the IGP said seven officers are currently bedridden after suffering injuries or illnesses sustained in the line of duty. “There are seven sick police officers that are bedridden… We are also providing support financially, sometimes there are medical bills even out of the country,” he said, adding that he would later provide detailed statistics on injured officers. Addressing questions on the causes of the recent killings, Touray said police investigations indicate that many of the cases stem from domestic disputes or personal disagreements rather than organised criminal activity. “The analysis that we have, in our own view, is mainly domestic by nature,” he said. Referring to a recent killing at a mechanic’s garage, he said the incident followed an argument between two individuals. “Somebody brought his car for the mechanic to fix… there was just this exchange of words between them… and then all of a sudden [the suspect] pulled out his knife and stabbed him,” Touray said. He argued that it would be impos…

Source: Foroyaa Gambia