A security expert says the police administration risk becoming too powerful at the local level if the call for decentralisation of the police is heeded. Emmanuel Sowatey believes the police could turn themselves into “deities” and lord themselves over the citizenry who they are to protect. He was reacting to suggestions by the Convention People’s Party for the decentralisation of the police institution. The CPP's shadow Minister on security, George Aggudey told newsmen on Wednesday the position of the Inspector General of Police has outlived its usefulness. The scrapping of the position to be replaced with ten police commissioners who are autonomous will do for effective policing, he said. Mr Aggudey insists the current police structure is dangerous because police personnel at the local level are unable to act and in most cases wait for orders from the IGP before they can act. He said the police commissioners will have a firm control of security issues in their specific regions and report to the minister of interior rather than having an IGP to report to. Emmanuel Sowtey said the proposition by the CPP has its own advantages and disadvantages. Whilst agreeing that the decentralisation will make the police more sensitive to local needs with the police becoming more community oriented, he said, the suggestion has its own demerits. “When the oversight is weak you leave these police to create chiefdoms, they will become local deities where people will be afraid of them particularly so when the oversight for example from the legislature is weak. “It lives room for a lack of coherent policy because crimes are often interconnected,” he said. He said the decentralisation of the police could only be successful if other structures that will make policing more effective is added. Mr Sowatey said the increased politicisation of the police institution could hinder a smooth implementation of a decentralised policy Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana