OUR SECURITY, OUR CONCERN (MAY 1, 2010)

WE wish to express our alarm at the increasing cases of security men being accused of complicity and alleged involvement in the commission of various types of crime.
It is regrettable that some of our men who are mandated and paid to protect us from crime and ensure safety and security have been convicted of some very serious crimes, including armed robbery, while others are being tried.
That a nation’s development hinges on safety and security of its people is incontrovertible. Therefore for security men to be associated with crime could be disturbing.
In November, last year, for instance, six police officers and four civilians were convicted of conspiracy and robbery and sentenced to 200 years’ imprisonment after the Accra Circuit Court found them guilty.
And last Thursday, three soldiers and two policemen were busted by the Accra Regional Police Command on allegations of extortion. It became the latest such case of men in uniform being dealt with on suspicion of pursuing wealth through unlawful means.
Some of the cases are still before the law courts and, therefore, we are constrained to comment on them.
The unfortunate situation involving our men employed to prevent crime themselves being associated with crime should begin to stir the conscience of the nation to a soul-searching exercise with the aim of arriving at the appropriate solutions.
Some psychologists postulate that human beings are innately evil. The other view to that is that the behaviour of a person is often influenced and determined by the norms, culture, values and imperatives of the society that produced that person.
From the two diametrically opposed views of psychologists and sociologists, it can be inferred that the conduct of the security men and, indeed, all people can be influenced by both psychological and sociological factors. The conduct of the security men can be attributed to their own behaviours and factors within the environment.
Whatever the case, the behaviours of people can be minimised by the introduction of programmes, laws, controls, policies and projects meant to prevent them from going wayward.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, thinks that the government, the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Armed Forces and other security institutions and other stakeholders can put their heads together to take another look at the systems and conditions that produce the ‘negatives’ within our security services.
In this case, issues relating to recruitment, remuneration, promotion and capacity building could engage the policy makers within the security services for a thorough re-look.
We have alluded to the fact that some of the problems have to do with the individual. Therefore, there is the need for thorough examination of the background of people who are recruited into the security service to prevent a situation where we might engage security men and women with dubious characters.
This is a matter of utmost importance because we cannot afford to toil with the security of our nation and our people.