Security expert rates Ghana Police 70%

Dr. Ishmael Norman, President of the Institute for Security, Disaster and Emergency Studies has rated the Ghana police 7/10 for their general performance in the country vis-a-vis the recent armed robbery attack in Adedenkpo near Jamestown.

He says the country has not failed the security litmus test but he acknowledges there are areas that can be improved in the country. According to him, there are management problems that need holistic evaluation from the top down in solving them.

Dr. Norman also pointed out that there are operational challenges within the police setup for a very long time that need fixing. He said the police are lacking logistics in terms of equipment and tools to ensure the optimum delivery of service in the country.

He made these observations in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3, Thursday, June 17.

Dr. Norman was speaking on the back of the question whether Ghana has failed the security litmus test concerning the recent flagrant attack on a bullion van that resulted in the death of a police constable and a trader in Adedenkpo near Jamestown.

When asked if Ghana is failing the security litmus test, he said “I wouldn’t say completely but generally I will rank them at 7/10. Well we all know some of the issues that have cropped up, there are management problems that I think they need to do a holistic evaluation of what they need to do in terms of promotion, retention and expired contracts. Then the operational challenges, the operational challenges have been with this organization for a very long time where police officers don’t have the equipment and the tools to work with. And then we have police stations that basically don’t even have communication systems to communicate with others in its law enforcement, so there are a lot of issues there”.

He added that the police have personnel issues by way of recruitments bedeviling it in order to deliver their best in combating crime and safeguarding the country.

“And then we have personnel issues in terms of the way recruitment is being done. At this stage of the world , we are still recruiting police officers who basically lack the professional skills, we need to change that. We need to recruit them to train them in the science of policing because it’s a science as well as an art. So when we look at the management issues, the operational issues and personnel issues, there are a lot of gaps that have been exploited by the criminals and that is what we are seeing now. But let us not be alarmed because the rate of crime as we have seen has fallen, violent crimes have also fallen, so we should watch this situation so that it doesn’t fall out of hand”.

---3news