[ 2014-09-17 ]

Police intensify training on citizen friendly policing
Accra, GNA - Ghana Police Academy has organised
the first course of the second phase of its
citizen friendly policing course with 30 personnel
raising the number so far since the inception of
project in 2012 to 221.

The course is designed to deepen special and
functional skills of the divisional commanders and
station officers to meet current requirement of
democratic policing and to incorporate requisite
acumen that would enable them to put a human face
on such duties as arrest, detention,
interrogations, use of force and public
management.

Commandant of the Ghana Police Academy, Deputy
Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Bright Oduro said
the training would help create awareness on the
need to uphold, respect, promote and protect human
rights of citizens and impact on the general
attitude of the police.

He said the programme, which is in response to the
paradigm shift, championed by the police
administration to train and retrain officers to
meet democratic policing standards, would also
help the courts’ decongestion bid with respect
to criminal cases.

He said the academy, which is 55 years, has
contributed to the development of the police
leadership, national peace and security, but added
that, the lack of expansion and modernization of
facilities to reflect emerging trends in training
environment remained a challenge.

The “citizen friendly policing” project is
sponsored by the Institute for Foreign Cultural
Relations through funds provided by the common
Federal Foreign office and administered by the
Hans Seidel Foundation (HSF).

The Director-General in-charge of Human Resource
Development of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy
Commissioner of Police, Patrick Timbila, also
observed that the negative public perception about
the service was bad and called for change in
attitude of the personnel.

“Let’s all resolve to change that perception
in order to serve the people better and I believe
that can be done through training and retraining
which is at the centre of the police
administration agenda.”

He called on the personnel to couch a new face for
the service, improve upon its service to the
public and reaffirm public confidence in the
service to better fight and reduce crime.

Mr Demian Regehr, Country Director of HSF said the
foundation tries to use its resources to
strengthen ties between government institutions
and civil society to enhance better service
delivery to the citizens.

This, he said, is because in many situations,
people feel that their needs and interests are not
being represented and fully understood by
political leaders and institutions working to
implement political agendas.

He said the police play a crucial task in a stable
society, which largely depends on “strong and
fundamental trust” between citizens and the
police.

“If trust is established, people will comply and
collaborate with the police, ultimately, this will
positively affect the criminal justice system on
all levels,” he said.

The HSF Country Director urged the police to work
assiduously to change the negative public
perception in order to make their work more
effective and beneficial to Ghanaians.

The HSF is a political foundation from Germany
working in the areas of civic education, the rule
of law and conflict prevention.

Source - GNA

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