EXTRAS
Human Rights Reporters Ghana back calls for police to be schooled on Human Rights
The brutality of the Police force in Ghana is bad, but will it ever stop on its own or something more drastic needs to be done?
The Ghana Police Service is an important government security service charged with maintaining internal security, law and other. Their functions are vital to the safety of all persons living within Ghana.
The Police is a body that represents the civil authority of government responsible for ensuring public order and safety at all times throughout the country.
General Overview of Police Duties
They work to ensure that, laws are enforced, they act professionally to prevent crime, detect crime and investigate such outcomes through extensive criminal investigations. These functions are policing duties of the Ghana Police Service. Businesses and properties are also provided security by Ghana police service.
The basic function of the Police are stated in Section 1 of the Police Service Act, 1970 (Act 350)
It shall be the duties of the Police Service to prevent and detect crime, to apprehend offenders and to maintain public order and safety of persons and properties.
The Ghana Police Service provides other services to the general public such as Providing Motor Traffic duties aimed at ensuring safety on our roads for road users.
Police Brutality
However, police brutality has gone on for long and many innocent persons have suffered ranging from being killed by police officers negligence and stray bullets. In other instances, people have lost their lives because they were mistaken to be criminals on the spot. Other people have been seriously hurt and bedridden through police brutalities.
Lawyer Francis-Xavier Sosu speaking on the AM Show on Joy News said
Police officers must pass a course in human rights before they are put out there to go and police
The days when police officers want to show the civilian or the lawbreaker where power lies must be over. In a related development, the Trotro Driver and his mate who were captured on a viral video in which they fought an Officer in Uniform have also indicated how they were beaten and maltreated by the Ghana Police since they were arrested.
Another police brutality suffered by Latif Iddris of Joy News and other unprofessional conduct of the police amount to human right abuses that many police officers have done have gone unpunished.