On The Police Again

Ghana Police Service

Oman FM, an Accra-based radio station, put out a disturbing story about a top police officer who has successfully warded off his retirement from the Ghana Police Service, although he is due to exit the system as by regulation.

The man is said to be deeply engaged in the recruitment process of men into the Service and is boasting about his links to those who matter in the corridors of power, a leverage he is using with impunity.

His refusal to leave is one stay of action the relevant authorities are forced to live with; it smacks of a political backing in total disregard for the regulations underpinning the operations of the Ghana Police Service and which painfully pours scum on the ability of the service to apply its professional standards.

Oman FM treated the story as a teaser with the intention of returning to it later. We are not in a position to audit the verity of the story, suffice it to point out however that if there is one institution which has suffered the undue interference of politicians over time, it is the Ghana Police Service.

In spite of such anomalies, Ghanaians expect best practices from this embattled institution. The Police in any country should be spared any suspicion of circumventing the law they are expected to enforce. Unfortunately, however, through no choice of theirs, the long and self-seeking hands of politicians have whittled down the efficiency of the Service through such interferences.

The problems of the Police Service are not from their own making but the contaminating interference of politicians who are ready to do anything to protect themselves in spite of the effects of these on the professional standing of the Police they came to meet and would leave behind when their tenures end.

We have for sometime now editorialized about certain anomalies in the Police, not because we take delight in doing so; far from that. We are rather obsessed with strengthening our state institutions such as the Ghana Police Service so that the rule of law can be saved from the whims and caprices of bad politicians who find themselves in power by sheer manipulations of loopholes in the electoral system.

Unfortunately, our crusade has suffered a certain misconception and therefore presents us as a bunch of malcontents, an erroneous stand anyway.

Recently, our story about challenges which cropped up in the last promotion exercise of top police officers prompted a response from the security agency's PR Department, a routine reaction which was expected.

It sought to belie the substance of the story but we are not at all perturbed, given our genuine concern about the development of this crucial institution of state.

The tone of the rejoinder was rather misleading and sought to, as it were, belie the content of our story. It was unfortunate that things went that way.

It has always been our candid objective of ensuring that the Police operate beyond interferences which tend to undermine their proper functioning.

In his interaction with the security agency when he graced their annual WASSA at the Police headquarters, Vice President John Mahama, also the Chairman of the Police Council, spoke about plans government had for the Service.

We cannot agree more with plans to equip the Police to discharge their functions more efficiently but equally important perhaps is the need to insulate the institution from wanton political interference as is clearly evident today.

We are looking forward to the day when politicians would not be able to direct the Police to do things which clearly breach their professional ethics.

We are looking forward to the day when the IGP would be able to look at the President and counsel him about the unprofessionalism of an action he has been directed to undertake through a presidential diktat. That is what we mean by sparing the Police Service political interference and allowing it to function professionally.

When we reach that state, we will have achieved the important objective of strengthening the Police and sparing them the nonsense of political interference. That is all. We bear no malice against this all-important institution of state, crucial in the justice delivery system.