Political activist and Leader of the Ghana Action Network, Selorm Dramani Dzramado says the Ghana Police Service has a lot of work to do to achieve world class-police, judging by the questionable conduct of some police personnel.
His comments come after some protesters at the ‘Hands Off Our Hotels’ demonstration in Accra on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 suffering various degrees of injury after police used pepper spray on them.
This incident occurred when demonstrators insisted on going beyond the agreed finishing point at Christ The King Church, close to the Jubilee House.
According to reports, when the police forcibly prevented the crowd from advancing, some of the protesters threw sachet water at them.
In the heat of the moment, some officers deployed pepper spray, resulting in injuries among several individuals.
Tear gas was also employed at one point to disperse the growing crowd.
The IGP, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, during his swearing in ceremony, promised to turn the service around into a world-class force under his tenure of office.
Mr Dampare also assured Ghanaians that he is focused at making the Police Service the most respected organisation in the country to serve as a reference point for Africa and beyond.
But speaking on Ghana Kasa on Kasapa 102.5FM Wednesday, June 19, Selorm Dramani Dzramado said the IGP will have to step up his work if indeed he wants the Police Service to achieve world-class police under his leadership.
“I want to tell the IGP that when you do an assessment on the conduct of most of the police personnel, he has a very long way to go in achieving world-class policing. The communication by police personnel is so bad, they have still not learnt how to go into the psychology of protesters and couch a language that the demonstrators will understand that will not bring about confusion or pandemonium. They are always aggressive, they look over zealous and they protect government of the day. But their allegiance must be to the State which pays them. The Police always want to do the bidding of a sitting government, which is very wrong.”
“It is as though there is always antagonism between police and demonstrators. World-class police do not behave in this manner, that is not how they control crowd. They are peace-loving, they always want demonstrations not to result in violence, but these ones, they are quick to pull their trigger. How can we achieve world-class policing with such conduct, and what are the pragmatic measures the IGP has put in place to achieve world-class policing,” Selorm Dzramado asked?