Police to focus all energies on internal security

The Ghana Police Service (GPS) is taking steps to bring on board all its men and women in full-time vocational activities to the security network to assist in stemming the rising crime wave.

Police personnel who serve as tailors, dressmakers, carpenters, musicians and others who were not performing the traditional police functions, would be re-assigned to security roles.

Mr. Sam Awortwe, Director of the Legal Department of the GPS announced this at a round-table discussion organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Accra.

The forum, under the theme: Maintaining internal security in a constitutional democracy," was attended by over 30 participants from the police, military, media, private security agencies, NGOs, parliament and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

Mr. Awortwe said the current crime wave presents "an extraordinary situation, which calls for an extraordinary response from the security service," to combat it.

He said the participation of the military in joint patrols and operations with the police, is only temporary, as the military would soon return to their traditional role of maintaining external security.

"We have therefore been forced under the prevailing circumstances to make use of all the 16,000 police men and women in the security service and hire out the various vocational service to the public," he said.

Mr. Awortwe said in 1964, when Ghana's population was 7.5 million, the police population was 21,000, adding that the present strength of the police service is 16,000 and the country's population is about 18.5 million.

"The strength of the police service is woefully inadequate for any effective and efficient policing," he said. "There is the need to increase the strength of the service through rapid and massive recruitment as being done."

Mr. Awortwe appealed to the government, individuals and private organisations to support the police with logistics and called on the public to volunteer information to the police, saying that about 90 per cent of the police success depends on public co-operation.

Chief Superintendent Kofi Boakye, Acting Police Regional Commander appealed to the parliamentary committee on security and interior to urge parliament to provide the police service with computers and other equipment to collect intelligence data on criminals and criminal activities.

This, he said was necessary to keep track with the activities and location of suspected criminals.

He said the Accra command needs at least 53 vehicles, but has only four at the moment, adding that this inadequacy of logistics is largely responsible for the delayed response to public calls for assistance.

Dr. Ken Attafuah, Director of Investigation and Operations, CHRAJ, urged the police to mind their language, saying, "it is unfortunate to hear the Inspector General of Police himself make statements like 'we would deal drastically with the criminals."

He said such statement suggests that even crime suspects are likely to be subjected to brutality even before they are convicted, adding that when such threats are issued by the police, it can only lead to more killings as robbers would not want to leave any possible witnesses alive.

Dr. Attafuah said there was the need to retool the police mentally to uphold liberal ways of stemming crime through due process as against crime control methods in order to raise public confidence.

He blamed the increased crime wave on what he called "our unfortunate past of military government and its resultant proliferation of arms and the wanton manufacture of arms in the country."

He said: "It is important that the police focus more on these areas other than placing too much emphasis on the migration of refugees into the country as the cause of increased crime."

Dr. Attafuah said; "as we blame foreigners for invading our country with crime, we must not forget that the people we trust most, such as the police, teachers, doctors and even parents are currently some of the most disappointing characters in public. This is a sign that Ghanaians are not as peaceful as we want to believe."