Real police work started in the then Gold Coast; now Ghana, in the year 1921. Before that time the executive and judicial powers were in the hands of local chiefs and headsmen who employed unpaid messengers to do the work of the police.
In 1871, when Great Britain had full control of the colony, it became necessary to provide a strong force. To this end, Captain Glover conscripted a force of 700 Hausa men from Northern Nigeria to take part in the Ashanti wars on behalf of the British and in 1876, this body of men formed the Gold Coast constabulary. The Gold Police Force, now Ghana Police Service was formed in 1894, with 400 out of the 700 men who formed the Gold Coast Constabulary.
Since the inception of police service, it has never existed in any illegality since there were several ordinances backing its creation until 1992 when Ghana was ushered into constitutional rule.
Article 200(1) clearly states that “there shall be a police service of Ghana” and no other police service. In the spirit of the constitution, there should be one police service for all Ghanaians and that is what we have now. The constitution again gave the police service a legal mandate to maintain law and order by emphasizing on the traditional role of the police drawn from previous ordinances. Just as the constitution says, “the sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people…”, the existence of the police is a constitutional delegation drawn from the people of Ghana to empower the police service to enforce law and order to make Ghanaian society safer.
The police has been given the power not to work for themselves. For that matter it is expected that the police, in the exercise of discharging their duties, do so within the confines of the constitution. Anything outside the constitution is null and void.
Article 200(2) says clearly that no person or authority shall raise any police service except by or under the authority of an act of parliament. This provision defeats the argument proposed by some learned people recently that the police service should be privatized for it to be efficient. It is only the parliament of the republic of Ghana that has the constitutional mandate through its Act to create another police service or to privatize it.
Iis essential to know that the police service belongs to class of services providers known as essential services whose functions are key to the stability of the Republic of Ghana. Any attempt to privatize the police service will only put profit maximization above the collective interests of the ordinary Ghanaian and that will be very disastrous for our common good.
Article 200(3) defines the mandate of the police. The police service shall be equipped and be maintained to perform its traditional role of maintaining law and order as stated by the constitution. Before the police service discharges its mandate of maintaining law and order, it must be equipped and be maintained.
The question has always been whose duty it is to maintain the police service to carry out its mandate of maintaining law and order considering how corporate bodies and individuals are making donations to the police lately? Some have argued that corporate bodies and individuals sharing the responsibility with the government of maintaining and equipping the police to discharge their duties effectively has the tendency of putting the police in a dilemma in the long run as far as crime combat and law enforcement is concerned. Others have argued otherwise. In a subsequent piece we will explore these two schools of thought in detail.
Article 90(1a) declares the police service as a public service and article 202(1) declares the Inspector-General of Police as the head of the police service to be appointed by the president in consultation with council of state.
From the above interpretations based on the constitutional provisions, one can clearly see that the police service is a service for Ghanaians which exists in the collective interest of all Ghanaians. Every Ghanaian has a stake in the police which must be protected. Every Ghanaian has a share of trust and confidence placed in the police by virtue of being a Ghanaian and for that matter he or she must ensure that his trust and confidence is protected. That is why it is said in the police that every caller is a potential ally. The police are to discharge their duties without discrimination against all manner of persons. The doors of the police service should be open to all Ghanaians at all times.
Currently the police service as it is has the following objectives which guides it in performance of its constitutional duties:
1. Protection of life and property
2. Prevention and detection of crime
3. Apprehension and prosecution of offenders
4. Preservation of peace and good order
5. The due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which it is directly charged.
These objectives have been operationalized for effective policing and the safety of the society. These objectives were drawn from the constitutional mandate bestowed on the police service by the 1992 constitution of Ghana in order to ensure that law and order is maintained constantly.
Currently Regulation 1 of the Police Service Regulations 2012(C.76) clearly depicts the structure of the police service. It is a public service with security operations hence some classifieds and operational tactics will always remain secret.
The police service exist because of Ghanaians and not by itself. It draws its authority from the people of Ghana. The police can only be successful in crime combat as well as law enforcement if there is a mutual partnership between the police and the society. There is should be a formation of company of trust and confidence where both the police and society will be shareholders. The general Ghanaian public must trust that the police service can save their lives and properties as stated in its objectives. It is when the police has proved itself to manage the trust of the the general public creditably, that is when they will automatically put their confidence in the police. A police service that doesn’t have the trust and confidence of the population breads lawlessness and creates a society where only the strong survives.
We currently have a police service which seems to have a strained relationship with the general public with which it draws its mandatory power. In reality, the civil Ghanaian population has a role to ensure that there is a better police service for us all. The society to a large extent must police the police to ensure that there is a balance but not abuse in its functions. Society must be alive and responsive to react to the inefficiencies and negligence of the police in the course of discharging their duties.
We have failed not as a police service but as a country considering the happenings in the police where there seems to be an increased trend of police involvement in heinous crimes. Our safety is threatened, our trust seem to have broken and our confidence is waning because we have all been part and parcel of where we are being driven to. We have failed to police the police and that is the beginning of our woes.
The police service is not for any individual, not even for men and women in police uniform since they will leave the police service someday after their terms of contract have come to an end. However the police service will stay for generation to generation and our collective interest and not that of any individual is what is at stake.
Article 191(a&b) which provides immunity for public officers including the police from victimization and dismissal is a dead clause buried deep in the belly of the constitution. Anybody who resist the demands of the ‘powers that be in the police is victimized. That is why we seem to have a police service which is currently breeding criminals. We are under constitutional rule but the authority of the law is in hands of some powerful people who determine how the laws should be applied based on their interests.
For now it appears there is competitive bidding and tendering of personal interests of the powerful taking over our collective interests. It is up to you and I to deal with it. If we have a situation where politicians openly promise their followers to vote for them so that in return, they have them employed in the police service, then the Ghanaian with a conscience must be worried.
May God bless the police service and all those who are serving in the police with commitment, dedication and sacrifice.
It is in the collective interest of all Ghanaians including us the police.