A year of reform as RGP tackles new treaty demands and resource strain

The Commissioner of the Royal Gibraltar Police, Owain Richards, arrived in Gibraltar just over a year ago to lead a force strained by the McGrail Inquiry, depleted by departures and facing a backlog of organisational change.

Thirteen months on, he believes the RGP is stabilising and reform is under way, with an increased budget allowing for new resources, including additional officers.

But recruitment gaps and new treaty responsibilities mean the force currently remains stretched while policing both the visible concerns of the community and countering less obvious threats unfolding online, behind closed doors and across an open border.

Mr Richards took office on July 1, 2025, becoming the first non-Gibraltarian Commissioner since
1997.

He had served for 19 years in Wales, where his experience was rooted in community policing,
followed by a decade in senior roles in the Metropolitan Police in London.

Gibraltar’s “international city village feel”, he said, offered a fusion of those contrasting professional experiences.

He arrived without any prior connection to the RGP or to the disputes and relationships that had shaped the force’s recent experience.

“I saw it as a strength from the point of view of I had no connection to the organisation and any of its perceived feelings,” he said.

“I had no connections to anybody who had perhaps a bad service or who had a grievance with the
organisation.”

“And I saw that as a real strength to actually come in objectively and to try and improve things.”

Mr Richards and his young family have made Gibraltar their home, placing him within the community he polices rather than at a distance from it.

But professionally, what he found on arrival was an organisation under considerable strain.

“I think that the people of the organisation, the officers and staff, had been through a lot,” Mr
Richards said.

“They'd seen many of their police officer colleagues leave the organisation in waves.”

“That meant that they were carrying more responsibility, which meant more stress and more
burnout and more sickness.”

“That is stabilising now as we're starting to build back up our recruitment.”

Despite those pressures, he found officers and staff who remained “absolutely dedicated and
committed” to providing a professional service.

The demands of the McGrail Inquiry had, however, absorbed resources and management attention for several years, slowing many of the changes the force had wanted to make.

There were also significant vacancies in the RGP’s senior ranks, requiring Mr Richards to build a new
leadership team during his first months in office.

His approach, he said, was “supportive, empowering” but also “directional” when decisions were needed about where limited resources should be placed.

“I'm very much about mentoring and coaching, setting the clear direction, but allowing officers who are closer to the front line to make those decisions,” he said.

“I found an organisation that, despite all of those challenges, was focused on the mission of
delivering for the public.”

“But what they needed was direction, support and funding, because the funding for the RGP had
remained static for recent years.”

REFORMS AND RESOURCES

Part of the RGP’s reform programme has focused on implementing recommendations from the McGrail Inquiry that related directly to the force, including improved search warrant applications and greater senior oversight.

Mr Richards also sits on the steering group considering wider reform of police governance but said the final model was a matter for elected representatives and those responsible for overseeing policing.

His experience in Wales and London had exposed him to different systems, none of them perfect.

Any new structure for Gibraltar, he said, must remove any blurred lines of accountability while
reflecting the Rock’s particular needs.

“The one point I would make in all of this is that the operational responsibility and the independence of the role of the Commissioner or the Chief of Police has to be a fundamental pillar of that work,” he added.

The immediate challenge alongside reform was resources but that is now being proactively
addressed.

When Mr Richards took office, the RGP’s establishment was 258 warranted officers, including the Commissioner. The latest Government of Gibraltar budget increased that figure to 290.

But increasing the establishment on paper does not immediately put officers on the streets.

The force continues to carry around 50 vacancies, although more than 40 candidates are undergoing
vetting ahead of a recruit class expected to begin training in November.

The RGP has also conducted a targeted recruitment campaign in the UK for trained firearms officers
who could transfer to Gibraltar and, after vetting, be fast-tracked into operational roles.

Mr Richards wants more local applicants, people who understand Gibraltar’s culture, community
connections and languages, and says a new Government bursary will help in that respect. But he also sees value in recruiting people from elsewhere who bring specialist experience.

“Fundamentally, this is about having the right workforce mix with different backgrounds, different skills, different languages to be able to police the community,” he said.

“It’s a blend but more important than any of that is the right values.”

“To be a police officer, you need to have high ethical, moral [values] and honesty and integrity.”

“That for me trumps everything.”

COMPETING DEMANDS

Recruitment pressures have been intensified by the additional responsibilities arising from the treaty arrangements.

The RGP must provide officers at the airport and maintain a permanent presence at the frontier,
including armed officers, to deal with alerts, documentation issues, traffic management and cross-border police cooperation.

Resources previously assigned to community and roads policing have been moved to cover duties
that must be maintained 24 hours a day. Overtime and response teams are supplementing those
deployments, but Mr Richards estimated the force was operating at about 80% capacity when other
pressures including sickness and injury are factored in.

His longer-term aim is to claw back officers for community and roads policing once recruits have
been trained and deployed.

The competing demands highlight what he described as a healthy tension between the policing the
public sees and the threats it does not.

Residents may understandably ask for more officers at beaches or in residential areas after a
disturbance or a series of thefts. But the RGP must also investigate online child abuse, domestic
abuse, economic crime and threats linked to terrorism or hostile states.

Mr Richards was speaking after a fracas at Camp Bay that caused wide societal alarm, but also shortly after a terrorism incident in Berlin that illustrated starkly one of the top priorities for European law enforcement agencies, Gibraltar’s included.

“It's about a measured approach, taking on what the community are saying, but also responding to
hidden harms,” he said.

“I think it's a healthy tension because I think it's very legitimate for the public to say, I need more officers on the beach after what happened...”

“But it's important that the public are aware that there are many other forms of crime that are less
visible in the community, that happen in private spaces… and we have to deal with those issues as
well.”

“We're dealing with the digital street as well as the Main Street, and we have to be alive to
terrorism.”

TREATY CHALLENGES

The open border presents another area of focus.

Mr Richards said the RGP enjoys good cooperation with Spanish counterparts and agreed with the
Governor, Lieutenant General Sir Ben Bathurst, who recently told this newspaper that a key to successful treaty implementation would be ensuring officers and officials at every level on both sides understood what the treaty required and applied it consistently in their day-to-day work.

“Of course, it's easier for us in Gibraltar because we are more connected to government in terms of communication, and therefore we're closer to understanding what the objectives are, what the
requirements are, what the concerns are, what the issues are,” he said.

Spanish counterparts, in contrast, would have to defer to Madrid for policy direction and national
policing requirements, adding additional layers of communication.

“But we are empathetic to that and we've attended the meetings and it's very much work in progress
and [we’re] working through it,” he added.

“I have to say, on the ground and strategically, so far, it's gone as smooth as I could have expected.”

“I think that from a policing point of view, the [treaty] articles are very clear on acting in good faith, on cooperation, on communication, and we have to continue to work on it.”

One of the trickiest areas of police cooperation will be the joint immigration patrols at sea envisaged by the treaty, which will see Gibraltarian and Spanish officers crewing the same vessel in British waters around Gibraltar that Spain regards as Spanish.

The treaty is clear that any executive action at sea should be the responsibility of the officers whose jurisdiction the incident occurs in.

But the different political positions on Gibraltar’s waters could, in time, present awkward situations if executive action is needed, a challenge that Mr Richards acknowledges and is discussing with the Government as part of the treaty implementation process.

Law enforcement agencies everywhere share the same goals in combating transnational crime “so there are different ways in which we can tackle this problem collectively”.

But this lies in the future, not least because a suitable patrol vessel has to be acquired, and the
priority “is and will be for some time at the airport”.

The removal of immigration controls at the border has also generated unease for many in the community, despite investment in new live facial recognition and CCTV cameras that, in effect, have
created a digital border to replace the physical one.

Mr Richards was speaking to the Chronicle before the events in Ceuta last week, which have fuelled
concern about the impact of unlawful migration in this region.

But he said that during a recent walk along Main Street, the feedback from businesses, shop owners
and members of the public he spoke to was that they felt safe.

“They felt secure, which I thought was a huge vote of confidence in relation to public perception with the open border,” he said.

“But there are unknown risks from an open border, because we don't know if organised criminals are
likely to exploit that.”

“We're ready to deal with it, but there are unknown risks.”

SHARED RESPONSIBILITIES

The response, he said, cannot come from policing alone.

Domestic abuse, mental health incidents and concerns for people’s safety require the involvement of health, care and support services, while individuals can take reasonable precautions to protect themselves and their property.

“Policing alone cannot prevent or detect, investigate and bring criminal justice to all of these issues,” Mr Richards said.

“Society itself has to take responsibility. Other partners have to play their part as well.”

Like his predecessors in the post, Mr Richards believes some demands currently placed on police
officers could be handled elsewhere.

Around a third of calls to police relate to concern for safety, while uniformed officers continue to perform duties at Parliament and the courts that reduce the number available for front-line policing.

Discussions are taking place with other ministries and agencies about how some of that pressure
might be eased, though Mr Richards acknowledges that all departments face challenging demands
on resources.

The Commissioner’s priorities for the coming years include technology, facilities and the welfare of
officers.

Looking ahead, “it's about IT transformation. refurbishment of New Mole House, urging Government
to find us land for a new police station, delivering better equipment and training and uniform and mobile devices for our officers, having better wellbeing support for our officers.”

After a year in Gibraltar, Mr Richards said one of his strongest impressions was of the closeness of
the community and its willingness to support others.

“I think what I've learnt is the community connection and the social connection, the charitable spirit,” he said.

“Everybody's willing to help and support one another. They've been incredibly welcoming for my
family.”

“And I think that's something that is quite unique and should be maintained in the community.“

In tomorrow’s edition, Commissioner Owain Richards on policing and Gibraltar’s new digital border.