At times when I sit down and look at the words that make up the motto of Ghana police service, then I begin to experience “cutis anserina” or “horripilation”. I start to shiver and gripped with awe. I do not know who choose the three letter words that add up to make the motto of the police service but whoever chose these words might have thought through very well before given these beautiful words that add up to our motto. Yes ! We are the only service with integrity and no doubts about that. Just three letter words that place the morals and principles of honesty of the police officer on beam balance with much expectations.
I have tried to find the dictionary meaning and the etymology of the word integrity which is the moral fabric on which the police service runs. Etymologically, integrity is derived from the Latin adjective “integer” meaning whole or complete which later incorporated into English and French languages.
Modern dictionaries such as Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defines integrity as the quality of being honest and and having strong moral principles or the state of being whole and not divided. These chosen words that make up our motto actually justify why society expects so much from us and the very reasons why anti-corruption lenses has always been on us. Much is expected from us per our motto. We are judged in the court of public opinion and condemned to cells of dishonesty by it and we find it very difficult to appeal our innocence at times.
A detailed text on integrity should however tell you that it is a broad ethical concept which many reputable organizations and institutions have struggled to live up to its expectations as far as the true meaning of integrity is concerned. Integrity is the moral measurement of principles and standards every police officer is expected to uphold to win public confidence but unfortunately it has not always been the case because of the saying by the Akan people that “in every town, there are undeservings”.
There are some undeserving individuals in police who have always dragged the name of the police service into disreputes therefore making our integrity always questionable but well balanced text on integrity should be able to educate you that integrity can also not be equated to perfection despite expected high standards of morals and principles of honesty. It is only fallible humans who are expected to hold in higher esteem the principles of integrity and for that matter the police officer is not an angel.
I admit that that the police service has been hit with several scandals from missing cocaines, corruptions of all kinds to police officers being involved in robberies and other forms of crimes, and a lot of other stories that really dent our image and credibility as an institution but has that taken our integrity away from us as security service? I think no!
We have discharged beautifully our constitutional mandate of maintaining law and order at the perils of our lives under constraints. We have jealously guarded our fledging democracy with our lives on oaths despite backlash from unapreciative Ghanaian public since the inception of the fourth republic. Just last Saturday 7 January at the independence square, a new president was sworn in after a tedious elections duties by the combined efforts of our police service and our sister security services. That is integrity. That is the bar that we should be measured with at times when the public questions our integrity.
A big politician in the previous administration who has read a lot of my write-ups once asked why do I always say that the police service is full of people with integrity and yet we are seen everyday on the road extort monies as low as Ghc1? Is that acts of people or professionals with integrity? Surely, that is not! He said.
I asked him much should we extort then? May be Ghc100 per a vehicle so that he can attach some credibility to our levels of extortion.
What we have to do as a country and people is to investigate why does the police service seem to have a long tradition of extorting monies as low as Ghc1 and find out whether it can be solved to save our police service the kind of credibility we expect from them. I went on to tell him that the corruption bedeviling the police service since time immemorial to our times is more of state induced kind of corruption that that needs a holistic approach by pursuing article 200(3) of the 1992 constitution which states emphatically that the police service shall be equipped and maintained… to its fullest meaning in principles and practices.
This constitutional provision is beautiful framed and well constructed but largely depends on the government to provide the police officer with everything he needs to execute his or her duties. The question however remains, has the police officer adequately equipped and maintained per the dictates of the constitution? We need to find out as a country and people who expect so much credibility from the police. Until we have a perfect yes answer for this rhetorical question, this state induced kind of corruption will never stop and the unethical ones in the police service will always take advantage of it to enrich themselves.
Corruption in the police service can be likened to corruption in both private and public sectors where there are bold inscriptions on walls and doors of offices which read ” services offered here are free, we accept no gifts, report all acts of corruption” and so on and so forth, but behind the scenes, people receive different colours of envelopes being deposited in their drawers in turns everyday filled with various denominations of the Ghanaian cedi. These are people sitting comfortably in a well frozen air conditioned offices receiving fat envelopes compared to the ordinary police officer standing in hot sun or in a frozen weather in some isolated danger prone areas. The same people after leaving the comfort of their offices and after their corrupt practices, find their ways onto radio and television stations start discrediting the police.
Corruption in Ghana, we all admit is a national canker that we must all endeavour to eliminate but with hypocritical attitudes of our politicians,the clergy, the media and the general public, our police service has been a deserving institution with an integrity. The kind of people in Ghana and per our levels of morals, standards and practices, our police service has been creditablly marvellous because it is people from the society that join the police. The corruption has it root first in the society.
Just recently, Ghana Police Service was adjudged the best police for UN peacekeeping duties and for that matter the UN requested that more police officers be deployed to UN peacekeeping duties. That is integrity but I guess it’s a story of a prophet has no glory in his hometown so the media was very silent on it. The media did not report it much as they have been trumpeting our wrongs from the mountain tops and that is what makes our media very dishonest.
Integrity is when a police officer dies fighting robberies and other forms of violence crimes just to make society safer but in return his family is rewarded with neglect and a very big dishonesty on the part of the state to watch the the wife and children of departed police officers suffer. The state and the police which one has integrity then? I do not want to mention the names of number of police officers who died last year alone in line with duties and left their love and family members behind. Just last week, a cenotaph was inaugurated at the National Police Training School, Tesano where their names were inscripted. May their souls continue to rest.
Ghana Police Service is the only service with integrity and our gallant police men and women deserve commendation especially the periods before, during and after the presidential and parliamentary elections. Our contributions to Ghana’s democracy can certainly not make us a dishonest security service but that which has a lot of integrity considering how we are committed to the peace and the stability of this country. We have truly serve the Ghanaian people with integrity.
Ghana is peaceful and that is because the police has integrity. To all police officers ayekooooo !!!