The purpose of police training is to increase the level of awareness and skills of officers in many areas of expertise and also motivate them to better perform their job and have a higher probability of staying alive in the field, “not to look cool” in uniform or post pictures on social media to make people believe that you know what you are doing when in fact time and money are being wasted on trainings and resources that are not efficient or not being done properly. We must understand that training does not guarantee an officer’s safety, but it increases their chances of staying alive in the field and going home to their families. Therefore, we need to make sure that these training courses that we provide for our officers are justifiable and efficient and not just for a show.
The Guardian Intelligence and Investigative Service would like to commend AIG Landing Bojang for performing proactive policing and leading our brave law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day to ensure peace, stability, and order for everyone living in The Gambia by hitting the streets and cracking down on criminal dens and hideouts in the West Coast Region and KM. We would like to see officers in other regions to go out and be proactive in the field rather than sitting at police stations waiting for crimes to be reported while the government on the other hand should of course provide these officers with proper police gear and weapons when they are out in the field and not be out there empty handed because policing is beyond pen, paper, and wearing a uniform. The justice department also has a huge role to play in this fight against crime in the country by making sure that charges are properly filed, and cases are being prosecuted swiftly and accordingly.
While we commend AIG Landing Bojang and his brave officers for being proactive and doing a great job taking back control of the country from these criminals, we would also like to raise concerns on the recent Facebook post that we saw on “The Gambia Police Force” page that was posted on June 15th, 2023, where Anti-Crime Officers conducted training exercises on arrest tactics and close protection. We would admit that there has been a great improvement in making sure that our police officers have the proper training and gear that they need to better do their job, but we also would like to highlight the fact that there’s still room for improvement on handling handguns, arrest tactics, and close protection formation based on the photos that we saw on the Gambia Police Force Facebook page. We have analysed and assessed the photos and established that there are areas that we need to focus on such as the way officers grip their pistols, safety tips on how to minimise the possibility of friendly fire during an ambush when assign to a V.I.P close protection detail, and arrest tactics. In some of the photos that we’ve analysed where the protected was taken to safety, we concluded that there would have been a friendly fire and a higher probability that the protected would have been caught in a crossfire if that was a real-life situation and it would have been also difficult for the officers to hit the targets based on the way they gripped their pistols; possibly innocent bystanders. As for the arrest tactic scenario-based exercise, the subject could have grabbed the leg of the officer standing over him and kicked the other officer holding his legs in her face and overcome both officers if they were dealing with a hostile subject that knows Jiu Jitsu.
The Guardian Intelligence and Investigative Service is very proud of our officers who are working hard work to safeguard the nation and are willing to learn new ways to effectively enforce the laws of the land without violating people’s constitutional rights; our goal is not to undermine, criticise, or disrespect our security sector but to add value and level up with the modern way of enforcing laws. As for the dishonorable officers/other government officials who are wasting taxpayers’ money and protecting the criminals, we urge them to start putting the country’s best interest at heart first otherwise we will make them our problem, expose, and bring them to justice. It might take us days, weeks, months, or years but we will eventually catch them (“there’s always a door”).
