By Yankuba Jallow
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 impossible for police officers to be stationed at every location where disputes may suddenly arise.
“Do you expect police officers to be deployed at a mechanic’s garage to prevent crime? We don’t even have the resources to do this,” he said.
The IGP also addressed concerns about the quality of police investigations in serious criminal cases.
He said investigations undergo legal scrutiny before cases proceed to court.
“When we usually finish our investigation, we send it to the country’s legal office. Sometimes they send it back to us for us to work on those gaps. When it is done that is when it is sent to the court for prosecution,” he said.
Touray noted that although prosecutions can take time, justice continues to be served, citing recent convictions in murder and violent robbery cases reported in the local media.
On ongoing security operations, the IGP said the police are intensifying intelligence-led policing and conducting regular patrols in collaboration with other security agencies.
“The measures that we have taken and continue to take is to continue our intelligence-led policy deployment in places that we consider as hotspots,” he said.
He added that routine patrols are being carried out by the Anti-Crime Unit and the Police Intervention Unit, with support from the Gambia Armed Forces, the Gambia Immigration Department, the Prison Service, the Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Fire and Rescue Service and the State Intelligence Service.
Responding to claims that foreigners are responsible for recent murders, Touray urged the public not to generalise, saying every case should be examined on its own facts.
He cited two recent cases involving foreign nationals but said many killings result from ordinary disputes that escalate into violence.
“What led to that killing? As trivial as that can be, that was what led to that killing,” he said, referring to one case involving an argument over a satellite television dish.
Touray maintained that police cannot prevent every spontaneous act of violence.
“If it is any incident that can be attributed to lack of police presence [or] lack of timely response from the police, I will be the first person to admit this and probably apologize,” he said.
“But I want all of us here to look at each of these. How did it happen? Where did it happen? What must have led to the incident? These are very critical questions that we need to ask ourselves.”
The IGP declined to comment on calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty as a deterrent to violent crime, saying the issue is a matter of government policy rather than one for the police to decide.
On community policing, Touray said the initiative is already producing results through engagement with schools, communities and local authorities.
“It’s already working,” he said. “The engagement with the schools, the engagement with the community, local authorities. We are not only targeting schools. Even issues relating to early child marriage [and] issues relating to hate speech.”
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