By: Lennox Akpetey, A Development Communication Analyst
NEWS COMMENTARY ON THE NEED FOR YEARLY MENTAL EXAMINATION OF POLICE OFFICERS
The vision and mission of the Ghana Police is Service with Integrity. This is supposed to be the ideal situation, but the opposite seems to be the case. In the past, getting enlisted into the Ghana Police Service was considered a privilege. In recent times, any school dropout, failed mathematician, failed carpenter, failed farmer’s last resort is the Police Service. This has led to a lot of people from diverse backgrounds getting access into the police service without integrity. To say the Ghana Police Service is a professional body is to claim that there is a code of ethics that governs the Service. However, events in the past few years in particular do not support this assertion. There have been reports about police brutalities in the country. Last year, there was a report of a mother and her toddler being brutalized by the police. In countless other cases, police are quick to use force in response to protests or demonstrations.
Ghana Police are trigger-happy, and can provide the flimsiest of excuses for killing citizens. The unlawful use of brutal force by police can end in death, injury, and devastation. Oftentimes, it leads to human rights violations. At its worst, unlawful use of force by police can result in people being deprived of their right to life. If Police force is unnecessary or excessive, it may also amount to torture or other ill-treatment. The reputation of Ghana Police is dwindling. Unlawful force by police can also violate the right to be free from discrimination, the right to liberty and security, and the right to equal protection under the law. There are strict international laws and standards governing how and when police can use force – particularly lethal force. The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials (BPUFF) is the key international instrument that deals with police use of force. The most important thing to remember is this: it is the utmost obligation of state authorities, including police, to respect and protect the right to life. According to Article 13 (1) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution (as amended in 1996): No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally except in the exercise of the execution of a sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana of which he has been convicted.
In the last few days, the Ghana Police formally confirmed the death of 27-year-old satellite television dish installer, Albert Donkor of Nkoranza in the Bono East Region, however, they describe him as a suspect in many cases of armed robbery. A statement issued by the Director-General, Public Affairs Directorate of the Police, DCOP Kwesi Ofori on Tuesday, May, 17 said the Police gathered intelligence that Albert Donkor and a gang of five other suspected armed robbers were involved in several armed robbery attacks in the region, including armed robbery attacks at Nkoranza on April 19 and 20, 2022. This has been the modus operandi of the Police Service anytime they mistakenly kill citizens. They find a way to always put the blame of their inefficiencies on the victims because the dead do not talk. This led to a demonstration by the youth of the area. One person died following clashes between the youth of Nkoranza in the Bono East region and the Police. The dead person, who is yet to be identified, is said to have been shot when the Police began to fire ‘rubber’ bullets to disperse the teeming crowd. The locals are accusing the Police of complicity in the death of the man. It will be recalled that, on 10th April 2022, two people died after police in the Akatsi South Municipality clashed with some aggrieved youth who were protesting the death of one person who the police alleged is part of a three-member armed robbery gang.
Most of these police brutalities create volatile situations in communities. Police officers misbehave and nothing happens to them. Some have attributed this to the recruitment of unqualified persons into the Service. Most of these recruits have political god-parents and are therefore, absolved of any blame and or prosecution of any kind. One of the cures to police brutalities is to make sure that only those who have the passion for the profession are selected. Security checks on the recruits should be encouraged to avoid enlisting charlatans into the service. Others have also suggested yearly mental examinations of police officers to ensure that they are in good condition to function as police officers.