By Helena Selby
A country will definitely have no law breakers when it has no existing laws governing it. The differences in the nature of people and the presence of social vices in society have compelled leaders to set up laws to prevent people from stepping on other people's toes. Though everyone is capable of taking care of his or her own self, there are people purposely trained professionally to be extra vigilant about what happens in and around society. Despite the fact that they are in categories, namely the Military and the Police, they have different responsibilities.
The Police Service is for keeping the peace and upholding the law in society. The nature and the reason behind the police force makes the public trust them for their safety, especially when they are present at a particular time and place. However the trust the society has for them is gradually decliing, as the police is in a way tarnishing its reputation.
The police service, which has the responsibility of prevent risk or threat to the peace of the citizens, sometimes rather pose a great threat to them. Some bad nuts in the police service, instead of arresting and preventing an offense or crime from taking place, rather commit or join/assist others in committing crimes.
The community and the police
The Ghanaian society always makes it a point to give respect to the police, but not to the maximum. People are scared of the police in cases such as murder, rape robbery and other crimes, however, they give the police no respect when they are misbehaving in public. People do not care about the presence of the police when there is a misunderstanding that could lead to a fight, people fight right in front of a police station or before a policeman. According to Ibrahim Mutala, a truck pusher at Ashaiman, he once witnessed two of his friends fighting right in front of a policeman, when the policeman was informed, all he said, was that they should kill themselves, since they knew what is right from wrong.
The majority of people, looking at the how the police becoming less vigilant, commit any offense they like, as far it is not considered a serious felony.
Some bad attitudes of the police
Apart from the May 9th stadium disaster, which responsibility was put squarely on the police, was one fatal incident that discredited the service greatly. According to one Madam Teresa Osei, a trader in Ashaiman, her handbag was snatched right in front a policeman, she, thinking the policeman would do her a favour by running after the thief, realised that was way out of the question.
When she begged him to get the bag for her, he told her he had closed for the day. If one may ask, does the duty of the police to protect the citizen cease when their official working hours are over? A policeman will fail to recognise a faulty vehicle simply because he or she needs just a cedi.
It is very pitiful that the police service, which is supposed to be one of the respectable professions, off late, has become a profession of ridicule. Even drivers take the opportunity or their weakness for money to ridicule them.
According to one driver, Ishmael Yakubu, policemen are the least people he is afraid of on the street. He said, whenever he is wrong on the road and is asked to pull over, he puts GH¢1 in his license, gives it to them, and immediately he is set free. At certain points also when they find no fault on the vehicle, they beg for money, and drivers have no choice than to give in to them.
In the early part of this year, one Tuesday morning Joy FM, an Accra-based radio station, reported news about the Ashaiman police shooting at a crowd with live ammunition, killing two people on the spot and injuring 10.
The trouble started when some irate drivers were said to have stormed the Ashaiman Police Station to demand the release of their colleagues, who had been arrested the previous day and were being kept at the station. The drivers blocked access roads in the town as they converged on the police station. The police panicked and shot into the crowd, resulting in loss of two lives. Afterwards, a police officer defended the shooting on the grounds of self-defense, and explained that the police only had live ammunition for crowd control.
This is amazing and frightening, and must thus call into question what exactly is the content of police training in the area of crowd control. This is important, because almost every crowd trouble has resulted in serious incidents, involving fatal shots by the police.
Though the police knew that with Ashaiman being such dense urban environment, it was inappropriate to shoot into the crowd, they went ahead and did it. Does this mean there is no right equipment, in this case rubber ammo, water cannons, etc. for crowd control? If live ammunition must be used, is there no procedure for frightening the crowd, such as shooting into the air? The death of the young boy indicates that surely the police was shooting at eye-level, which was not good enough on the part of the people who need to render protection to the public.
Imagine a policeman shooting in the open during a chase to arrest a thief, ending up killing a young lady, as if there was no shooting practices or procedures during their recruit.
Duties of the police
It is assumed by the public that the police are taught very well how to go about their duties and to professionally protect the public, however, the police seem to forget their duty as peace makers. Since the police hold the responsibility of anchoring the internal security of the state to keep the peace, the Cheshire Police Website pointed out that, “Then there is the need for the police to uphold the law fairly and firmly to prevent crime. They have to pursue and bring to justice those who break the law, to protect, help and measure the community, and to be seen to do all this with integrity, common and sound judgment.
“The police must be compassionate, courteous and patient, act without fear, favour or prejudice to the rights of others. They need to be professional, calm and restrained in the face of violence, apply only force which is necessary to accomplish their lawful duty, and strive to reduce the fear of the public.”
It is a good thing to know what the responsibilities of the police are, but the question is, do they act according to their responsibilities or act anyhow they want to? Do they even know their responsibilities as police personnel? It is very unfortunate that people who are responsible for safeguarding the law, most often turn round to break the law, and in the end become criminals themselves.
Not long ago, a policeman in Tamale was convicted for defiling two sisters. A Member of Parliament was allegedly suspected of dealing in illicit drugs outside the country. A bank manager was allegedly suspected of being an accomplice in a robbery case that occurred in the bank. All these are incidences of crime, but does it really matter who commits the crime?
Conclusion
The duty of police personnel is evident; it is about time the police take their profession seriously, and not complain about low salaries, as the result of their attitudes.
The swearing of the oath to work diligently is deemed important, since the lives of the citizens are in their hands. It is up to them to set a good example to attract people to join the force, rather than always allowing themselves to be ridiculed by the public.
The ability depends on them, but partially on the government, if the government gives them good incentives and attractive salaries, they will take pains to protect the people and work diligently.
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