The Gambia Police Force is still  a troubled institution beset with morale,
resource and management problems. Weakened by Yahya Jammehs intentional
schemes of undermining it's basic functions of law enforcement by having his
auxiliary security apparatus poaching and in some cases outrightly displacing
them, the police just withered. Then came Mr Jasseh who had an initial stint
as a consultant and was recently hired as the deputy chief. The preponderance
of the evidence since he came in as D.I.G suggests that Mr Jasseh is a good
man who is strongly inclined to reform the Police into a professional outfit
that would dispense it's duty strictly according to law. His candor and
can-do spirit first surfaced at least to us the general public when a couple
of months ago he very publicly acknowledged the dismal state of the force
emphasizing the public's justified lack of faith in the police and all the
dangers that entail. That was a remarkable departure for a government that is
led by an assortment of liars and sycophants who spend no time at fixing the
myriad of problems facing their departments. Having told us what the problem
is, Mr Jasseh must now be concentrating on crafting and instituting policies
within the force to reach his desired aim of a well motivated Police on which
all Gambians can count . The only way he can succeed in that endeavor is for
him to have strong hand in formulating and promulgating his ideas for a
worthy Police force. That is unlikely to come from a government that has
systematically purged the department of trained officers and replaced them
with hacks and cronies who now make up the entire mid management and station
officers. Mr Jasseh's boss the I.G is himself unsuitable for his job because
he has neither the experience nor the foresight to lead a professional police
force. Infact the I.G and his allies can and will stymie any reform efforts
that might interfere with the evil machinations of Yahya and his band of
thugs. Unless Mr Jasseh is able  control the mid-level cadre of officers who
supervise the daily nitty gritty of police work at stations and substations
throughout the country and would see through any and all reforms, his very
laudable goals will fail. As things are now , surrogates of Yahya and the
thugs associated with them control police stations and it is particularly
eggregious in the provinces where Aprc youth groups have long ago assumed
police powers and routinely'arrest' citizens for political reasons and take
them to police stations who promptly validate their illegal behavior actually
detaining the victims. We know Mr Jasseh is vehemently opposed to such
vigilante activities as evidenced by press accounts quoting him as saying the
police won't tolerate thugs marauding communities and visiting terror on
innocent people. In this particular instance , the test of his success lies
on whether he can establish once and for all that the police are the only
ones authorised by law to effect an arrest by going after and prosecuting
these thugs who have conferred on themselves police powers and abduct
citizens . While I remain hopeful in the desires of Mr Jasseh to do the right
thing and have tremendous regard for his efforts so far, I am not confident
that he will get either political or institutional support to see his reforms
through. The government to whom he is ultimately answerable to operates like
a criminal syndicate and have no inclination to do the right thing. Are SOS
Badjie and I.G Badjie seriously going to try their best to help Jasseh pull
the police out of the mess it is mired in? NO. And the simple reason is
because there is nothing in it for them. They owe their positions to one man
and as long as the institution as it currently stands serves their purposes,
you can bet your last dollar that they would pose every hindrance they can
muster. As for Mr Jasseh I predict if he insists on going forward with his
reforms, he would either be transferred to some other assignment within the
government or be fired. The best thing that can happen to the Gambia Police
is for the next government coming in 2001 to give Mr Jasseh a strong mandate
to fix this troubled department. With no parallel security forces to contend
with, the new government can give Mr Jasseh and like minded reformers
additional resources to build a professional police force that can
concentrate on drugs, community policing and other important services .
Karamba

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