OVER the years, the Ghana Police Service has faced tremendous challenges and these have impacted negatively on the ability of the service to play its role effectively.
Aside from the fact that the number of policemen is simply inadequate, poor service conditions, coupled with the lack of requisite logistics, tend to lower morale among the personnel and lead to corruption in the service.
Given the crucial role the police play in ensuring internal security and enforcing laws, the constraints they face have constantly raised concern among security experts and the citizenry as a whole.
It is against this background that the $1.9 billion five-year Strategic National Policing Plan for the transformation and modernisation of the Ghana Police Service must be hailed as a crucial move to ensure that internal security and law enforcement in the country are at appreciably high standards.
Under the strategic plan, 16,000 additional personnel are to be recruited by 2014 to bring the total police strength to 40,000, from its current 23,000.
Additionally, four new police training schools are to be established in the Upper West, Brong Ahafo, Western and Northern regions, while housing will be provided for 31,000 personnel of the service by 2014.
These and other projects and initiatives are aimed at positioning the Police Service as a very modern unit with personnel motivated and well trained enough to address the challenges of the time.
The DAILY GRAPHIC welcomes this initiative and commends the government for taking what can be described as a very bold step to revive the flagging spirit of the Police Service and restore public confidence in it.
Indeed, in the past, efforts to ensure that the Police Service rose to the challenge in the fight against crime had not been sustained, a situation which provided enough motivation for criminals to continue in their objectionable activities.
Policing in modern times has taken new dimensions, particularly because criminals are becoming more sophisticated and are adopting very cunning ways to outwit the security operatives.
In many developed countries, the citizenry play a crucial role in providing assistance and information for the police to enable them to deliver efficiently and nab criminals.
While efforts have been made by the Police Service to sensitise the general populace to what they can do to support the police to ensure maximum peace and security in the country, the response has usually not been so encouraging.
A few years ago, the concept of neighbourhood watch committees was in vogue and many ordinary citizens played vital roles to secure their communities, with the support of the police. Today, these committees are hardly in existence.
It is our hope that even as the government seeks to invigorate the Police Service and transform it into a modern unit, the issue of citizen support to the service will be revisited to put in place effective mechanisms of collaboration between the citizenry and the police.
Policemen also need to constantly bear in mind that they have a responsibility to remain faithful to their commitment to fight crime and thus defy any overtures from whatever quarter to bribe them.
In this regard, we appeal to the hierarchy of the Police Service, as well as the Ministry of the Interior, to ensure that policemen are well monitored and supervised to ensure that they discharge their duties with utmost professionalism.
We also hope that the government will not be deterred by any challenge it encounters in the pursuit of its commitment to modernise and transform the Police Service but diligently work towards ensuring that the service lives up to its role with a high level of efficiency.
It is time we transformed and modernised our Police Service and nothing, absolutely nothing, must stand in our way.
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