The Police administration has begun the training of some selected personnel to deal with high-risk situations such as rescue operations, armed robbery, public order management, terrorist attacks and vigilante groups.
The personnel who were drawn from all the 11 Police Regions in the country are currently in Pwalugu in the Upper East Region where they are undergoing training in modern trends in policing and security issues, especially weapon handling.
The Director General in Charge of Police Operations, Commissioner of Police (COP) Christian Tetteh Yohonu, who disclosed this in an interview in Accra, said in all, 330 personnel were involved in the exercise.
Exercise
He said the first batch of 165 personnel had already started the six-week training to build their capacity in handling high-risk issues that might occur before, during or after the December general election this year.
The next batch of 165 would also undergo a similar exercise.
The programme would also examine issues on electoral violence, presence of land guards, crime trends, chieftaincy and religious conflicts.
According to COP Yohonu, the participants would further be trained in policing elections in order to acquaint themselves with the methodology of elections to enable them to distinguish between electoral offences and criminal acts during voting.
Measures
He said the training formed part of measures put in place by his outfit to ensure that the election was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere.
COP Yohonu said this year’s election required multiple actors to ensure peace; and the onus lies on the police administration to ensure the overall success of the polls.
He said already a high-powered police delegation led by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr John Kudalor, had paid working visits to some regions in the country to check on their readiness ahead of the election.
During the visit, meetings were held with various Regional Police Commands while riot management, public order and communication equipment was inspected.
He said Mr Kudalor further tasked the commands to replicate in the regions the dialogue series with various stakeholders started at the Police headquarters and also form election task forces to deal with political infractions.
COP Yohonu also called on the commands to engage the media in their activities by organising special sessions to sensitise the public to the dangers of electoral violence.
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