The Inspector General of Police Dr George Akufo Dampare says hitherto arrogant public figures who once bracingly resisted arrest and threatened the police for doing their work have now been tamed under his watch.
Speaking at a public lecture held by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the IGP indicated that his command is vigorously empowering every police officer through a leadership-driven command and control culture.
Commending the police service for the boldness in arresting public figures; a charge that has earned the IGP a number of nicknames including the celebrity IGP; he indicated that the police will remain undaunted in applying the laws dispassionately.
“Now there is a culture that everyone is ‘arrestable’ including the IGP. Just do what is right irrespective of your rank and you will have the full backing of the whole police administration. Nobody can intimidate you,” he stated.
He added if we were to give you the list of people arrested left, right center; you will be shocked. Now you will arrest people and they say please no noise about it. Take me to court and everything there off, I will sort it. But at first, when we started, we arrest one person, then the people say political. You arrest the second person they say another political. Now we have all come to see and know that we didn’t come just for one or two things. We came to create that consistency.
The IGP touted the service for the successes chalked under the Police Invisible Eye surveillance operations warning motor traffic offenders to beware of the full length of the law.
“We have taken off all the MTTD guys from the road and we have put in place vehicles with cameras and if we are to tell you the amount of money we have made from indiscipline drivers, it will marvel you,”
The IGP cautioned that drivers caught using stroke lights and sirens to drive in the middle and shoulders of the road risked having their vehicles impounded for weeks when arrested for prosecution and removal of the unauthorized gadgets from their vehicles.
He warned, “Whoever you are, you try it, and the next hour we will take you to court. The beauty of it is that the law allows us to impound your car and wait for the termination of the case and we get an order of the court to remove the stroke lights before the car is released to you. If you are lucky you might have your car with us for two weeks.”The public lecture chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the KNUST Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson was held under the theme, “the changing phases of policing in Ghana; the expectations and role of the university community.”
Source: Kasapafmonline.com/Ivan Heathcote – Fumador
