The Police Special Operations Group is the elite unit of the Algerian Police. It was created the July 22, 2016, the unit participates throughout the national territory in the fight against all forms of crime, organised crime, terrorism and hostage-taking. Placed under the direct authority of the director general of the Algerian Police, the GOSP is called upon to intervene in the event of serious events, requiring the use of specific techniques and means to neutralize dangerous individuals, through negotiation or intervention. The GOSP is the Algerian equivalent of the French RAID.
History
In March 2015, the idea of creating a police task force was born. Moreover, the former Algerian Police Chief Abdelghani Hamel, who had visited the RAID in France earlier, confirmed that the police would need a group like the French RAID. The vast majority of GOSP members come from police task forces such as the BRI or the BMPJ. However, a few members come from Unités de Maintien de l'Ordre and other police forces. GOSP police officers are trained in the DSI, which is the Algerian equivalent of the French GIGN. They are trained in urban, semi-urban, closed environment and close combat. They have drawn much inspiration from Western intervention groups and have also been trained in the Portuguese Special Operations Group, the Spanish GEO, the Italian GIS, the German GSG 9, and the French RAID.
Organization
The GOSP headquarters is positioned in Boudouaou in the Boumerdès province east of Algiers. The GOSP has between 300 and 500 members. In addition, this unit may be supported by BRI in the police or SSI units of the gendarmerie. Moreover, the GOSP has several goups with their specialities :
The GOSP has a permanent training with the others Algerian corp security like the DSI or the militaries units, and there are trained in Portugal il the GOE, in Spain with the GEO, in Germany with the GSG-9, and in France in the RAID. Once a year every year the gosp carries out large-scale simulations and training in airports these simulations revolve around the resolution of taking hostages in Tebéssa in 2019 or a hostage crisis in an airplane with clearing landmines as in Béjaia in 2017, in Oran in 2017 and in Constantine in 2018. Its realistic simulations are made to judge the operational level of the GOSP and the reaction time of the unit. GOSP also trains foreign groups such as the Lesotho PoliceTask Forces and In 2017, they carried out an exchange programme with Portuguese GEO police officers where the latter had come to Algeria for training and GOSP members were also in Portugal for training.. and it has become an internationally recognized unit, and the President of Interpol praised the professionalism of the members of the GOSP. The GOSP also carried out exchanges with the Portuguese and Spanish groups and the French police. They have trained these groups, particularly in mine clearance.
