There Is A Need To Reform Police Service – Peter Lanchene

Peter Lanchene Toobu, a Member of Parliament for Wa West, has urged for sweeping changes to the Ghana Police Service.

The Police Service announced on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, that four police officers were arrested near Ashaiman at Borteyman in conjunction with an ongoing intelligence-led police investigation into some bullion van robberies.

Ghanaians have had diverse reactions to the announcement, with some criticizing the service.

Peter Lanchene Toobu, the Member of Parliament for Wa West, is one of them.

He believes the Ghana Police Service has to be drastically reformed.

According to the MP, who is also a former Superintendent of Police, the apparent decline in service standards is to blame for police officers participating in horrific acts.

The MP, speaking on Citi TV’s The Big Issue, said the situation is jeopardizing the country’s safety and ruining the service’s excellent reputation, necessitating far-reaching reforms.

“I believe that maintaining professionalism in the police force has become a difficult task. It’s past time for us to update our curriculum. As a result, I’m considering reforms to improve police accountability, openness, and demilitarization. If we are successful in doing so, I believe we will have a highly professional police force that is attentive to the requirements of the Ghanaian people.”

“It’s a truth that bad nuts exist in any organization, and just because you don’t find them in the police doesn’t mean the service is poor.” What this means is that the service is challenged to pick out the bad nuts and kick them out so that, over time, we can have a more polished police force.”

Security analyst Emmanuel Kotin, on the other hand, has urged legislators to refrain from interfering with the military’s recruitment process.

He claims that politicizing the service makes it less professional.

“As a matter of agency, I’m calling on political parties to examine their recruitment procedures and the roles they play in the selecting process.” When it comes to protocol recruiting, you’ll agree with me that the majority of the bottlenecks are removed. Some people refuse to participate in the screening and medical examinations. It’s also assumed that because it comes from a huge man, the person is of good moral character. That is why we face these difficulties so frequently.”

IMANI Ghana President Franklin Cudjoe has called on the police service’s leadership to put an end to the situation, claiming that such crimes might be perpetrated by an insider.

“I’m starting to believe there’s an insider in this whole thing.” The police hierarchy, in my opinion, ought to get to the bottom of this. It’s possible that these officers were gunned down because they needed too much and were about to incriminate a few other officers. It may be a fool’s errand, but I believe we should look in that direction.”