The Ghana Police Service And The Psychologist [Part 1]

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"Service with Integrity ", the motto of the Ghana police service reads.

Indeed,the Ghana police service is an upright institution characterized by virtue and social significance . An institution whose effect towards the stability of society and national development can never be exaggerated.

The service is made up of gallant men and women who have vowed on oath to sacrifice their lives for their country either by day or by night ,raining or sunshine ,scorn and or peril. So the American president Mr Barack Obama maintained, "understand ,our police officers put their lives on the line for us every single day. They've got a tough job to do to maintain public safety and hold accountable those who break the law."

Notwithstanding these facts, the police officer in Ghana has not been adequately catered for relative to their emotional and psychological needs which of course plays a very important role In their ability to ensure public safety and their own interpersonal relationships.

Atuguba (2007) in a policy analysis paper titled "THE GHANA POLICE SERVICE :A PRACTICAL AGENDA FOR REFORM " maintained ,"I believe that the first step for police reform is to do complementary research on the psychology of the various categories of police officers. " The Institute of Economic Affairs published paper further explained that reforming the police service simply means changing the attitudes or behaviour of police officers . He believed that a socio -psychological study is necessary to ascertain the psychology behind the actions and inactions of officers especially the impulses and constraints that propels their behaviours.

Similarly ,in the course of their daily operations, police officers go through some hustles that cognitively affect their mental and physical emotions as they ponder on their own safety and that of their family because of the nature of their work. They get traumatized when their superiors deploy them to challenge certain catastrophic events such as war outbreak, automobile accidents, and violent physical attacks (Robbins & Judge, 2007).

Officers are again embedded with so much stress birthed from the daily activities engaged at work, poor inter-personal relationships and everyday living circumstances. Internal working climate of policing, such as shift schedules that disrupt sleep patterns; lack of promotion, poor administration of leave ,sleepless nights because of call to duty, and lack of autonomy are sources of stress related to policing .

These are just a few reasons that calls for a stiff and tighter relationship between the psychologist and the police officer who has the key to the life and death of any member of the public.

The Ghana police service has five traditional roles and has been explicitly defined by the police service act 350/70 as follows ;

(1) protect life and property,
(2) Prevention and detection of crime,
(3) Apprehension and prosecution of offenders ,
(4) The maintenance of peace and order, (5) The enforcement of all laws with which it is directly charged.

"How can a police officer with a distorted ,challenged or perverted mental state develop an accurate sense of judgement to execute these five vital functions s/he is tasked to do ?" ,this I think is the most blatant rhetorical question anyone could ask.

The implication therefore is that ,police officers would begin to act in a skew negative to their statutory functions. So the officer instead of protecting lives and properties would rather destroy lives and properties ,in lieu of de-escalating tensed situations and maintain peace ,the depressed, stressed or frustrated officer would certainly escalate the situation into a graduated mayhem and catastrophe , albeit their lawful right to enforce laws and regulation :they may be too demoralized and zealously impaled to trod on.

The May 9th disaster and the many other miscalculated killings by officers over the years can be cited to buttress these claims.

To be Continued..........
Thomas Akanyibah
Bravo/swat
Accra Region
[email protected]