Ghana Police Service
A newspaper story about the alleged sale of promotions in the Ghana Police Service is not one to gloat over.
It is too scary to be believed and we wish it were not true. Perhaps it would be better to be in denial of the allegation because the Ghana Police Service is such a crucial institution in the country that any blemish on its integrity can be too costly to be countenanced.
The report has it that Chief Inspectors are paying bribes to be considered for admission into the Police College to qualify for promotion to the rank of Assistant Superintendents of Police upon graduation as others pay to be considered for UN peacekeeping operations.
Those due for transfers in some instances, according to the Ghanaian Chronicle story, scuttle the movement by bribing their superior officers.
If indeed such a story is veracious, then this crucial state institution, an important component of the justice administration system, statutorily charged with the task of investigation among other procedures, has been debased to a dangerous level.
We have had cause to comment about the police in recent times not because of a killjoy agenda but out of an obsession to see the internal security organisation lifted out of the moral malaise that has afflicted the country as a whole.
As a microcosm of the Ghanaian society peopled with representations of the population, the Police Service would definitely exhibit the social malaise challenging us as a people. After all, people and not angels make up the membership of the police.
We should all, including the Police Administration, strive to set this security agency apart from the others because of its peculiar role.
The strengthening of state institutions such as the police is a prerequisite to the enhancement of democracy and we would lag behind the developed world if we fail in this direction.
Police personnel need the respect and confidence of the citizenry to perform their work well and this cannot be achieved when such impressions are held about the institution.
The important virtue of respect which must be earned would be elusive when such image-denting impressions are held about the police.
It is more serious when the instances of impropriety, as being alleged, relate to superior officers, considering their special position of offering productive and effective leadership to the rank and file.
It is our position, as it is other Ghanaians, that the allegations under review be probed, because of their far-reaching implications, to better the image of the Police Service: This cannot be achieved through the routine knee-jerk responses to negative reports.
As a human institution, cases of malfeasance would definitely pop up occasionally. These could be managed through internal administrative enquiries and actions but when the impression suggests an all-pervading malaise, then the need for an overhauling of the system becomes irresistible, the neglect of which can impugn on the law enforcement and even the justice administrative system.
With the police required to undertake investigations into crimes before these are brought to court, the quality of such assignments can have important outcome on the administration of justice.
This and others are reasons why we must protect the Ghana Police Service from such demeaning conduct as being alleged. It is also not in the interest of those officers who have exhibited sterling professional qualities in the performance of their duties.
We need a Police Service committed to the enforcement of the law through dedicated service underpinned by service and integrity.
