Informants are as critical in intelligence gathering as the media. The only disparity between the two is the fact that while the formers’ findings are not put out on the public domain, and consumed by the police, those originating from the media are readily released as news for public consumption.
The informant system has almost grounded to a halt – the link no longer releasing vital intelligence to the police because operatives are not being motivated; their handshakes suffering unnecessary red-tape.
Have we so soon forgotten the role of informants in the arrest of Sexy Don Don and his colleague in the murder of the late Hon JB Danquah?
Have we also become oblivious of the role informants played in the eventual arrest of Atta Aryee?
We ignore the foregone at our peril, we dare state. In the intelligence community, there are officers who were put where they are today by the heads who left at the end of the tenure of the previous persons at the helm. And we think things would not go the way we are witnessing them today?
The issue of the challenges of the police is no longer one which should be treated as ‘business as usual’. It has gone beyond that stage and therefore demanding that we say it as it is so that the necessary prescription can be applied as a matter of urgency.
Regardless of whose ox is gored, we would put out what we know to be the truth, in fact the true picture on the ground so that the heightened criminality can be addressed effectively.
Even in Nigeria where crime is said to be more sophisticated than in Ghana, the bad Ibo youth who are abusing the ECOWAS protocol and introducing hi-tec robbery into the country dare not apply the daylight template there.
The Ghana Police Service at the top requires a serious realignment. Some of these gentlemen are sulking and would do anything to make the tenure of the man at the helm anything but successful including the President who appointed him as the chief constable.
When the man with inclination to the former political regime was transferred as head of CID to the Welfare Department, to be in charge of among others, the movement of personnel from one place to the other, a major blunder with negative fallouts had been committed.
It was a blunder the former ruling party would exploit to their benefit. We are talking about practical politics, not the usual theoretical one which provides impetus for the opposition and their appendages in the law enforcement system to savour.
There are many drawbacks when a ruling party committed to the rule of law is faced with in the face of an opposition not known to adhere to such civilized democratic principles activating crude Machiavellian tactics.
Who is the Superior Officer in charge of the SWAT of the Ghana Police Service? Is he the same who led the operation in the Volta Region during the critical biometric registration exercise in which Peter Amewu suffered untold pain because that was in the interest of the then ruling party? Is he still holding that position? Little discrepancies like that open the underbelly of the newly installed government to the mischievous machinations of the freshly minted opposition still sulking about their unexpected electoral defeat.
Who is in charge of recruitment of personnel and related matters? Was that person’s spouse not head of a critical political appointment in the old order and we expect that such a person would not play ball in a manner as to favour them?
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has already dropped a clue in the form of a question. Let us consider it and be wise in our decisions.
Yes, we are all Ghanaians and entitled to the goodies of the country. We should nonetheless understand the guys on the other side who play it rough and outside the books.
With improved logistics including choppers and drones, the foregone must be addressed before positive changes can be observed.