Public Mistrust the Biggest Challenge for Ghana Police – Sowatey

Security analyst, Emmanuel Sowatey, has said one of the biggest challenges facing the Ghana Police Service is public mistrust.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, he said voluntary information is very important to the success of policing of any country.

“Informants are very vital to policing of every part of any country but people have found challenges in trusting the police,” he said.

According to him, the best way forward for Ghana in terms of combating the mistrust is to revisit the recruitment process, retrain and improve supervision of responsibilities.

“Going forward and looking for a more efficient Ghana Police Service, I think we need to go down to recruitments, to training to retraining to supervision. Supervising roles from the police station to the district, to the division. If the police stations are solid, in terms of proper recruitment, training and retraining, once the grounds are solid, there will be fewer problems at the national level,” he said.

He said the police will continue to struggle if citizens continue to question their integrity.

There have been several instances where police officers have been found to be culprits in robberies and other fraudulent activities, whilst several of them have also been accused of being neck-deep in bribery and corruption.

In some cases, informants have accused the police of failing to protect them.

There have been concerns about insecurity generally following reports of robbery cases in Accra, Tema and other parts of the country.

Recent arrests

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), David Asante Apeatu, this week announced that the police have arrested a group of suspected robbers believed to be behind attacks on about 20 forex bureaux in the Spintex area in 2018.

The attacks on these Forex Bureaux were growing number of robberies and high-profile criminal activity in the region.

Mobile money transfer points have also been targeted by robbers in recent times.

‘We’re ready to die’

Despite these attacks some of which have also been recorded in Accra and Tema, COP George Akufo Dampare, who was Director of Operations until on Thursday when he was reassigned to the Research and Planning unit of the Police Service, has said although his outfit is logistically deficient, they are ready to put their lives on the line to ensure the safety of every Ghanaian.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dampare also noted that the support of the citizens will go a long way to help the Police Service combat the increasing rate of crime in the country.

“We want to give them [citizens] the assurance that we will go every length, including losing our lives to make them safe. We understand that we are not there yet, in terms of the full complement of our equipment. We also understand that over the years, government after government has made an attempt to bring us to a particular level in terms of equipment,” he said.

Source: Citifmonline