By Mustapha Jarju
The Gambia Police Force (GPF) yesterday inaugurated four new model police stations, stated a press release.
According to the release, three of the stations are located in theKanifing Municipality: Serekunda, Bakoteh and Bundung.
One of the inaugurated stations is Brusubi police station locatedin the West Coast Region.
“These four newly built model police stations were funded by the joint Germa-EU support to the Gambia Police Force with a program commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office and co-funded by the European Union in close collaboration with the Gambia Police Force,” the release stated.
GPF said the newly built police buildings provide an adequate infrastructure for professional police work. “They were designed to be human rights-compliant and meet the minimum requirements for citizen-oriented policing,” the police acknowledged.
GPF reported that the buildings in Serekunda, Bundung, and Bakoteh are divided into public and restricted access zones to prevent unauthorized access to the interview rooms, detention cells, offices, and exhibit stores.
“In the new model stations, police officers, visitors, and detainees will have separate facilities for women, men, and differently-abled persons, with enough ventilation in the building as well as the cells with available sunlight,” the release explained.
The GPF said while the construction was underway, the police officers in these police stations were trained in preventing and investigating sexual and gender-based violence cases, basic forensics report writing, and community-oriented policing among others.