| As part of Government's determination to purge the Police Service of miscreants, towards restoring the confidence of the citizenry in the Service, |
the Inspector General of Police, Patrick Acheampong, has been issued with a two-week ultimatum to ensure that all police personnel emboss their names and service numbers on their uniforms.
Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Interior Minister, who issued the ultimatum yesterday, expressed the conviction that the wearing of name and service tags would help to easily identify and expose police personnel who engage in criminal and other reprehensible practices to cast a slur on the integrity and credibility of the Service.
Addo-Kufuor was addressing the top hierarchy of the Police Service at the police headquarters in Accra during his maiden meeting to officially introduce himself to them. He was accompanied by Nana Obiri-Boahen, Minister of State at the Interior Ministry, and K T Hammond, Deputy Interior Minister. Present were Regional Commanders from all the ten Regions.
Police personnel from the ranks of Constable to Sergeant are to wear both the name and service tags, while officers from the rank of Inspector upwards are expected to wear only the name tags.
This norm had not been strictly enforced in the recent past, the reason being that personnel of the service had to procure it on their own. At the moment, the Service has contracted somebody to provide the tags, with distribution already in progress.
Responding to the Minister's order, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Elizabeth Robert-Mills, was confident that they would be able to meet the deadline.
Addo-Kufuor announced that as part of efforts to raise the morale of the service, arrangements had been made for the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to allocate 250 units of the affordable housing projects to personnel of the Police Service.
Two hundred units will made available at Borteyman in Accra and Kpone in Tema, while the remaining 50 will be made available at Asokore-Mampong in Kumasi. Additional units are expected to be provided in the other regional capitals as and when they are available.
The Minister further disclosed that Government had recently provided 269 vehicles fitted with communication gadgets to the Service, as part of measures to improve their service delivery.
Cataloguing some of the challenges confronting the Service, which include indiscipline, extortion of money from drivers and prisoners on remand, deficiencies in their training programmes, the Interior Minister urged the personnel to collectively help in charting a new course of progression for the Service.
He expressed regret about the fact that many people had lost confidence in the ability of the Police Service to protect the citizens of the nation, in addition to the belief held by a section of society that they are in league with criminals and drug barons, adding "but nothing will change the image of the Police Service more than all of us resolving to expose the bad nuts in the Service and ensuring that they face the law."
The Minister gave the assurance that recommendations from the Zwennes Committee report, being eagerly awaited, would be seriously implemented to ensure that the Service regained the prestige and trust it had lost in recent times.
According to Dr Addo-Kufuor, in spite of the current negative picture painted about the Police Service, "there are still some excellent officers in the service, many of whom are prepared to lay down their lives in the service of the nation as occurred in Madina three days ago."
He expressed condolences to the family of the late Sergeant William Quansah.
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