There is no doubt that the Ghana Police Service is now facing a serious image crisis. It is not surprising therefore that the entire Service has become a huge laboratory and its personnel – specimen to examine the casual factors for this disturbing state of affairs. At the recent passing out parade of newly Commissioned Officers at the Police College in Accra, President Kufuor remarked pointedly that the image of the Police has been brought into disrepute by the questionable handling of cases of narcotic trafficking in the country.
This was followed by a more piercing statement by the Interior Minister, Dr. Addo Kufuor who said, and I quote: “Many have lost confidence in the ability of the Ghana Police Service to protect the citizens. There are also those who believe that the Police are in league with criminals and drug barons” unquote. Dr. Addo Kufuor added that whether these negative perceptions are incorrect or exaggerated, there is no doubt that things are as he put it, not what they should be in the Ghana Police Service. It is worth emphasizing that the dividing line between perception and reality is indecipherable. And it is important to deal with the roots and not the branches of why the image of the Police has been so bartered and
tattered without measure. The Interior Minister cited indiscipline,
extortion of money from drivers and prisoners on remand deficiencies in the training modules, inadequate manpower, housing and transport as some of the root causes. In one outstanding extortion case, a policeman on the Cape Coast-Takoradi highway protested aloud against the money offered by a driver. And under the convicting gaze of all the passengers, the policeman without any shred of shame snatched the biggest portion of all that the driver had on him. No one could justify this. But it is not difficult to understand why corruption and extortion have such magnetic hold on the Police.
The survival instinct pushes the struggling officer who is woefully underpaid and exposed to harsh living conditions to bend the law to satisfy his stomach, regardless of the fact that moral flaw of one policeman gives a black eye to all. The blackish blemish among the Police would even go to the murderous extent of selling weapons to armed robbers or conniving with them. In the face of the skyrocketing crime rate, the Police do not help matters when they churn statistics which stand in flat contradiction with the reality on the ground. And the reality is that Ghanaians everywhere, be it the home, the bank, the road, or even the Church are conscripted with fear of their safety.
Indeed, in many communities it is no longer safe for workers and traders to leave home at dawn or return late in the night. Now the armed robbers find Sunday morning a convenient time to strike when most worshippers are in church. All these problems have not sprung up like mushrooms or rain insects after a downpour. They are the result of years of neglect of the Police and a cascade of many factors including the socio-moral ill health which is rotten to the core. The current crisis offers moralizing lessons to all. While parents, pastors and society as a whole work at this problem, the government for its part should take urgent but practical steps to improve conditions of service of the Police and other security agencies.
Yesterday’s arrest of cocaine suspects at Ataabadze in the Central Region shows that the balloon is not yet burst. There are remnants with the strength of character and ruggedness of spirit to champion the cause effective and incorruptible policing. These are the future Madjiteys and other distinguished officers of old who are determined to leave their mark on the history of the Ghana Police Service. Improved service conditions should go in tandem with a stringent set of criteria in the recruitment process, the foremost being moral rectitude.
Ghana could not have come this far in her democratic and economic strides without security. Security in the words of Dr. G.C. Mills-Odoi, is not some monstrous, devilish entity hovering around ever ready to pounce on the people at the least pretext but a friendly ally without which there can be no peace, stability and national progress. The sacrosanct importance we attach to security dictates that personnel at the centre of its all are well catered for while not sparing them verbal stones when the need arises.
