On the evening of Friday the 16th of October 2020, Royal Gibraltar Police [RGP] officers dealt with a number of incidents at Chatham Counterguard. There were several incidents shared on social media of a cameraman filming police interactions and the subsequent arrests of individuals.

After having conducted an assessment of one particular arrest and a review of the police actions surrounding the detention, the individual concerned has since been released from arrest. In a statement, Commissioner of Police Richard Ullger has said that he regrets this incident, pledging that, at a de-brief, his officers identified mistakes and have quickly turned the event into a learning opportunity.

He said further that he was grateful to the young man who understood the complications of policing and the challenges faced by the RGP during COVID-19 restrictions.

The Commissioner is keen to improve upon the RGP’s positive interactions with the community and has said that his officers will continue to police by consent, indicating that the legitimacy of policing in the eyes of the public is based upon a general consensus of support, that flows from transparency about their powers, their integrity in exercising those powers and their accountability for doing so.