THE POLICE SERVICE NEEDS OVERHAULING

RECENT happenings in the Ghana Police Service leave much to be desired.
Only yesterday, we published the interdiction of five policemen on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police for their involvement in two robbery incidents.
In April this year, the Kojo Armah Committee set up to investigate the missing cocaine from the Exhibits Store at the CID Headquarters in Accra recommended the prosecution of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Patrick Akagbo who kept the keys to the store for dereliction of duty.
The committee also recommended further investigations into the conduct of Chief Superintendent Alphonse Adu-Amankwah, the former Head of the erstwhile Organised Crime Unit, in his administration of the unit, especially with the arrest, transportation and handling of the cocaine which was intercepted at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.
In the same month, two policemen — General Constable Francis Tagaar and General Constable Samuel Nketsia, both of the Agona Swedru Police Division — were interdicted following brutalities they meted out to a petty trader, Emmanuel Nii Odartey, at Awutu Bawjiase.
In January this year, the officer in charge of the Narcotic Exhibits Store at the Police Headquarters was arrested following the discovery that narcotic substances in the custody of the police had been compromised and substituted with corn flour.
In a move to enforce discipline in the Police Service, the Police Administration, in May 2007, dismissed 39 policemen and interdicted 26 others for gross misconduct, ranging from extortion, stealing, absenteeism, alleged murder, desertion of post, alleged dealing in narcotic drugs, defilement, defrauding by false pretences, assault and, the unkindest cut of all, unlawful discharge of arms.
During proceedings at the committee that investigated the East Legon cocaine bribery scandal, a girlfriend of a cocaine fugitive, Ms Grace Asibi, named some senior police officers as some of the key culprits.
ACP Kofi Boakye, the then Director-General of Operations of the Police Service, was asked to proceed on leave because of his alleged dealings with suspected cocaine barons.
And we can go on and on.
All these cases are not good for the image of the Police Service, an institution set up to prevent crime in society, protect lives and property, arrest and prosecute offenders and maintain law and order in society.
If policemen will turn on the people they are supposed to protect, beat them, defraud them, kill them and steal from them, then there is the need for something to be done, and urgently, too.
Currently, the citizenry feel insecure because they do not know who is a good policeman and who is not, for it appears that the criminals are joining the Police Service to use their uniforms and positions to commit crime.
In view of the present state of the service, and the failed attempts by the Police Administration to reverse the negative posture the service is fast adopting, it’s about time we overhauled the service to make it perform its required functions.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes the time is opportune for a Presidential commission to be set up to overhaul the Police Service and particularly come out with recommendations to transform it into an institution which will prevent undesirable characters from entering it and also make the institution live up to the task of dealing with modern intricate and sophisticated crimes.
Let’s act now.