George Floyd murder: There should be reforms to address police brutalities in Ghana – Bonaa

Ghanaian security analyst, Adam Bonaa, is calling for immediate implementation of some recommendations made by the Emile Short Commission about the need for reforms in addressing police brutalities against civilians in the country.

Reacting to the guilty verdict passed by a jury in the murder of a black American man, George Floyd by an ex-police officer, Derek Chauvin, Mr Bonaa in an interview with GhanaWeb said there is the need for Ghana to adopt a system that effectively handles and delivers justice to Ghanaians who become victims of police brutalities.

“If you know the recent killing in Kumasi where seven young men were killed, a committee was set up and they got to know that these guys were not criminals as was alleged by the Regional Command and so some compensations were supposed to be paid and the officers involved were to be punished. But as to whether they were punished or not, we don’t know. The public is not aware of it, we are not privy to it and we know that when these things are not dealt with properly, officers who tend to brutalize citizens never get to learn that they are meant to serve the citizens and not to brutalize them,” he said.

According to Mr Bonaa, the current regime of managing the excesses of security officers only gives room for exploitation as the police is the same institution that handles issues brought against its personnel.

“We need reforms as the Short Commission recommended that let’s have an independent police authority or commission that when citizens feel offended or even when police officers feel slighted by their authorities or feel they have not been given fair hearing, they can fall on that independent commission or authority to listen to them. But at the moment, if a police officer brutalizes you, you go to the same police to seek redress and you know that chances are that you might not get fair hearing. Meanwhile if you have a lawyer and the lawyer scammed you, you can report to the General Legal Council, if a doctor did something wrong chances are that he could lose his license if you report it to the GMA,” Mr Bonaa said.

He added that having an independent body to check and deal with issues of excesses by police officers will not only protect citizens and restore confidence in the Police Service, but will also serve as an avenue for disgruntled officers of the service to seek redress to their issues and ills they suffer in the line of duty.

“I think citizens should be witnesses to a certain process of say a trial involving these officers and if they are found culpable or guilty, they are punished, and if they not, they are set free to go. So that it serves as a deterrent to officers who might take the laws into their own hands and also to make citizens have respect in the police service. But as we speak, every now and then you hear some citizens taking the law into their own hands to the extent of beating officers or fighting back. It only happens in a country where citizens or largely some of the citizens do not have trust in the law enforcement agencies.”