Gambia police, others on nationwide sensitisation tour

By Juldeh Njie The Gambia Police Force, GPF together with officials from the Gambia Transport Union and other partners are currently on a nationwide tour to create awareness to communities on crimes and road safety measures. Speaking on the sidelines of the event, police PRO, ASP Lamin Njie said the purpose of the awareness creation is to equip communities with knowledge of their safety and security concerns and other police functions. He said they will forward the concerns of the people to the police management to help them in their strategy creation, enabling them to address security needs of the citizens. ASP Njie said the awareness creation is also aimed at changing the mindset of the people to accept the police as part of communities by supporting them in the execution of their duties. “This awareness creation is going to benefit the citizens of the Gambia very well because it is a platform where citizens can directly interact with the police force”, Njie said. He explained: “We have several strategies, for example, community policing is one of the strategies that we are employing to have the people cooperate with the police because the business of security is not one sided. We both have a role to play.” PRO Njie said their work has a lot to do with with crimes and road safety measures. Therefore, they need the cooperation of all citizens to enable them take necessary measures to 0provide quality service delivery to the people. He also encouraged youths to exercise community policing by engaging the police on the abnormalities, saying “but in the process of doing that we don’t ask them to act as police.” Nafie Sonko, who was speaking on behalf of the women, said: “We have faced lot of challenges because drivers are always over speeding, especially on the new road in Tallinding, and our children are everywhere so we are calling on the police to allocate a sleeping police in the area”. Madam Sonko said most drivers drive “recklessly” on the road and if they complain, they (drivers) normally pay a deaf hear. Transport controllers were also in attendance. They called on the police to be vigilant and examine drivers carefully before issuing them with licenses. The tour is continuing to other regions such as Old Yundum, Brikama, Farafenni, Basse,Brikama Ba etc.]]>