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“You have an operation which is guided by an Operational
Order and it is a pre-planned operation, meaning that you
have time to assess risks, plan, allocate responsibilities,
resource them and set up structures to monitor the
execution, but this one had the Commissioner and the
Deputy and their staff at gold. It had Silver Commanders
who were responsible for things like cordons.”
11.30.
For the operation, the JCF established three levels of command,
viz. Gold, Silver and Bronze. CoP Ellington and DCP Hinds were the Gold
Commanders along with CDS Saunders of the JDF. CoP Ellington’s oral evidence
on 14 April 2015 is instructive as to the levels of command below himself and
DCP Hinds. He said –
“We had two Silver commanders. One in charge of cordon
and support, and the other one who is in charge of arrests,
searches and evidence gathering. Naturally, the officer in
charge of cordon and support would be deployed first
because that is to secure the target and the officer in charge
of arrests, searches and evidence gathering would stage
their deployment as it is possible thereafter. Below Silver,
you have what we call Bronze commanders. These are
usually lower ranking Gazetted Officers and may even be
Inspectors who are assigned to perform some specific roles
within the operation such as establishing [cordons]. And
then you may have officers who are responsible for inner
cordons which are where you go closer to the target. Then
you may have our arrest team and you may have an
extraction team there for injured or high value
targets…..each headed by a Bronze commander.”
11.31.
The situational structure and related responsibilities were informed
by what CoP Ellington and ACP Blake described as the IRIMAC model. Broadly,
IRIMAC is an acronym that highlights the critical elements of good operational
planning and the assignment of responsibilities. It therefore provides for:
•
INFORMATION/INTELLIGENCE
•
RISK assessment e.g. safety of officers and the public
•
INTENTION e.g. effecting the arrest of Coke
•
METHOD e.g. the manner of achieving the objective