Criminologist and lawyer Professor Ken Attafuah has said police training in Ghana focuses more on making the trainees wicked and brutish instead of educating them on the law and how to serve.

He noted that even though policing is supposed to be a service and for law enforcement, the training hardly gives the police men and women an orientation to serve, and the needed knowledge about the law they are supposed to enforce.

Prof. Attafuah's comments come in the wake of recent police brutality against demonstrators, which has been widely condemned.
Following that brutality, which the police tried to justify, another attempt by the demonstrators to picket at the Electoral Commission was scuttled by the police. The police secured an ex-parte injunction against the exercise. The action has been condemned by legal luminaries as unfair and abuse of the court process.

Prof. Attafuah told Adom News it should not surprise Ghanaians the way the police conduct themselves because they are trained to be more wicked and brutish to civilians than to serve and act within the confines of the law.

"If you ask the young police trainees or those who just passed out of the police training school, they will tell you how they are trained and the I humane treatments they are subjected to, all calculated to make them wicked towards civilians rather than to serve and behave lawfully," he said.

The Prof. noted that even the usually poor performance of police prosecutors in court is indicative of their poor knowledge of the law and legal procedures; meanwhile if those same prosecutors were put in a situation to be brutish they will be at their best.

He observed that the duration of police training is also not enough for them to get a good knowledge of the law they are supposed to enforce, so they cover up their ignorance with the use of brute force just to put fear in the public.

"Police men and women usually abuse their discretion because they do not know any better. They do not have a firm grip of the law they are supposed to enforce so they use brute force to stamp their authority," Prof. Attafuah said.

He is therefore calling for an overhaul of police training and an extension of the training period to ensure that trainees leave the police academy with a good knowledge of the law and an orientation to serve rather than to be brutish.

Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, Major Rtd Derrick Oduro also noted that the current police training manual is outdated and needs to be updated in order for newly trained police men, women and officers to have the right orientation about their work and their relationship with the public.

Some Ghanaians Adom News spoke with also said the presence of the police scares them more than makes them feel safe at events.
Some said they know the police presence is supposed to make them feel safe but the way the police have conducted themselves over the years creates more fears in them.

 

Attempts to reach the police to respond to the comments proved futile as the Head of Education and Research at Police MTTU, DSP Alex Obeng passed the buck to the Director of Police Public Relations, Supt. Cephas Arthur but he was also not able to pick his calls.