IGP David Asate Apeatu
Something is wrong with the Ghana Police Service and it is not good at all for their image and Ghana’s.
They have become the aggressors; perpetrating acts which are features of criminals. Why would professional cops assault the people they are supposed to protect? It is so because indiscipline has cropped into the rank and file of the police: the reflection of criminality which is incompatible with the status of the so-called agents of law enforcement.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the recent display of brutality by some cops for which so much has been written and commented about is yet to elicit an appreciable and soothing reaction from the Police Administration.
We are getting the impression that the Police Administration could not care a hoot about the people of this country hence the insulting silence from their end when a response is exigently required.
It is shameful they were quick to smoke out the driver and his mate who assaulted the police officer but not showing any sign of dealing with their bad nuts who beat up journalists.
The confidence of the public in the readiness of the police to do what is right and to enforce the law without bias is at an all-time low. Nobody seems ready to reverse this picture and that is what baffles us. Is the Police Administration under a spell of sorts?
The Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA) must remind the Inspector General Of Police (IGP) that he is yet to take action on his personnel who are taking the law into their own hands by assaulting unarmed persons in town – the latest being those who beat up journalists including a lactating mother. So crude and barbaric!
The repercussion from the Police Administration not taking action when their officers misconduct themselves is that people would no longer respect the system let alone cooperate with them when it comes to intelligence gathering. Many more cold cases are going to be recorded when important leads are not given to the CID especially.
Being a regimented organization, we expect the Ghana Police Service to exhibit a level of discipline close to the military’s.
If indeed the cops who beat up the journalists have not yet been interdicted then we can simply declare the Ghana Police Service as a security maintenance organization not living up to their bill.
We are dealing with a serious subject one which can have the GJA order a boycott of police activities until the Police Administration signs a verifiable undertaking to ensure that their personnel conduct themselves with an acceptable modicum of decorum and those culpable in the assault of journalists and others brought to book in consonance with the law.
Now we are beginning to understand why some police officers even at the highest level of their professions can be manipulated by equally bad politicians to undertake assignments which are unprofessional in nature.
We even have the feeling that some criminals elude detection and arrest because the Police are simply not interested in pursuing such cases. It is unfortunate that journalists who should be on the side of the Police are harbouring this impression about the country’s foremost internal security managers.
By this silence on the part of the Police Administration as their officers descend on citizens, they have undone all their efforts in establishing and sustaining cordial relationship with the media and their other publics in recent times. Shameful and unenviable in Ghana!