Ghana police - To serve and protect or extort and destroy?

All over the world, people are made to believe that police officers are persons trained with the requisite skills to serve and protect lives and properties. That is why sometimes they are referred to as peace officers.

For them to be able to discharge their duties effectively and efficiently, they deserve the cooperation of the ordinary citizenry in terms of information gathering that goes to support them in conducting investigations to find results to problems.

In other way people are made not to fear them but rather befriend them, so they say 'help the police to also help you'. But some cops have misinterpreted it to mean greasing the balm so that they will turn blind eyes on you when you commit crime such as stealing insulting, rape, assault on wife or husband, siphoning money from state funds and what have you.

Help the police to also help you is again misinterpreted to mean drivers must give police officers on the roads bribe for them not to check their worn out tires, driving licenses, insurances, drunkenness and many more.

It is undeniable fact that all over the country, there are unnecessary road barriers mounted by the police all to extort money from both commercial and private drivers. This development is very worrying because they fail to execute their original or normal, and the result being the needless accidents on our roads.

Really the action of police officers mounting road barriers to extort money did not start in recent times. It reminds me of an incident which occurred in Nsawam Adoagyiri, several years ago, and still leaving fresh memory in my mind.

On that unfateful date which could be described as Black Day for the officers in black uniform who mounted the barrier, as someone also play a smart one on them causing all the money they had collected from the drivers for the day vanished through the thin air. Because of the public outcry, condemning the act of extortion, the officers decided to use a different system by placing a bow in an abandoned kiosk by the roadside where they asked drivers to go and make their 'offertory'.

Not knowing, a stubborn driver, who was aware of what was going on, instead of going to put his money in the bow, quietly stuffed his pocket with all the money, without the officers suspecting anything and he drove of peacefully without being caught.

I felt bad and sorry for the peace officers who were arrested upon the orders of the Inspector General of Police [IGP] Paul Tawiah Quaye for extortion. I felt so sorry for them because they are guys I love so much because of their skills in dispatching their duties.

It was unfortunate that they downplayed the warning of the IGP, who gave them an insight of what he was preparing to do as far as cleaning the police service of bad nuts and restoring dignity into the service.

Yes, for a very long time the image of the police service has not been good as the good people they are supposed to render quality security services to are no more confident in the service or trust them to provide free and fair protection to them and their properties.

The service has been rendered the most corrupt institution in the security sector in the country. Almost every officer is believed to be abusing the power they have to provide security in all spheres. There were other times where some police officers were arrested as suspected armed robbers and were interdicted, a distasteful account.

Therefore it was not surprising to note that because of some of these worrying cases that sort to sink the image of the police service the IGP has decided to embark on a general image cleansing exercise and he deserve “Hi Five” for that challenge which he has demonstrated to many of us that he is grabbing the bull by the horn.

In our daily lives we need the police officers to perform various duties in our homes, offices, schools, banks, hospitals and what have you. There is no doubt that majority of them are doing marvelously well to the satisfaction of residents in our communities, I must note that it is just a few of them whose bad activities have painted the entire service black.

In fact this is not the first time an IGP has embarked on an image cleansing exercise. In the tenure of IGP Peter Nanfuri, there was a total overhaul of the police service, an exercise he undertook to improve the police service.

The mentality that once you get recruited into the police no matter how good you are, one will be corrupted later on must be erased from the minds of the general public. The duties of the peace officer does not lie only in going to the road and instead of directing traffic extort money from motorists.

Like I said we can not use the mistakes committed by the few officers at the Achimota Overhead Bridge to judge the whole service where many have done excellently well. For instance the young peace officer who was captured by the media for ensuring free flow of traffic in one of Accra's busiest towns was promoted accordingly by his superiors.

Another young police constable who engaged in a alone range shootout with armed robbers at a fuel filling station in Accra where he managed to kill some of the robbers and save the station from being robbed was also promoted accordingly for excellent work done.

So at least there are clear evidence that when a peace officer performs excellently will receive a matching reward for that excellent feat so why should some of them involve themselves in corrupt activities that will disgrace them and bring hardship to their families.

Let me remind Ghanaian police officers that their duty is to serve and protect but not to extort and destroy like those four officers who were arrested at Achimota. For those who have vowed not to change, tomorrow may be their turn.

Well done Mr. IGP for this excellent feat. I hope next time it will be those who have turn their charge offices into court rooms and prosecuting cases and collecting money.

Credit: Stephen A. Quaye, Toronto-Canada.
Email: teemagi2003@yahoo.com

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