Height would’ve disqualified me in police enlistment - CID Boss

Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah has said she is eternally grateful to Retired COP Jane Christine Donkor for giving her a chance into the Police Service in 1990 when she was turned away by the Tesano recruitment team because of her height.

In an appearance on StarrChat with Bola Ray covered by MyNewsGH.com, DCOP Addo-Danquah also disputed the widely speculated falsehood that she is related to President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, revealing that the ‘Addo-Danquah’ is her husband’s name and her husband who is a lecturer at UCC French Department is not related to the President in anyway.

Regarding how she joined the Ghana Police Service, she revealed that she attended Kumasi Polytechnic after completing Bompata Secondary School and used to hawk to support her mother and seven other siblings. She said she was hawking at Konongo lorry station when she saw a police enlistment advert as she was wrapping bread for her customer. She followed the process and applied.

“The enlistment day I took a car from Konongo and came to Accra. The person who gave me direction said Police depot is near Achimota. So I stopped at Achimota, and I think it was somewhere St Johns thereabout. So I walked all the way from St Johns to Tesano… That was my second time of coming to Accra. So I came with my O’level. When I got there the queue has formed. When I joined the queue and it got to my turn and they took my measurement, They sacked me. They said my measurement was not up to 5’4, so I should go.” she narrated.

She said she was disappointed, but she refused to leave when they asked her to.

“When they said I should leave I didn’t go. I stayed there.. Yes I was disappointed… The Chairman of the Committee doing the enlistment who became the first female Commissioner of the Ghana Police Service, Mrs Jane-Christine Donkor called me and I will never forget her. She gave me the opportunity. She had observed that I was still standing [around] after they told me to go. She asked me ‘why are you here? I remember we said you are not up to the height so go!’ And I said [please] Madam, ‘I really want to be a policewoman’.”

“Then she asked for my results slip. She looked at it and then she told the team members they should allow me to go and write the exams. That’s how come I became a Policewoman.” the CID Boss recalled.

DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah said she eventually got selected after she topped the exams.

“When we wrote the exams and the results came, those of us who came to Accra, I was first,” she said.

She, however, said she now meets the height requirement, calling for a review of the system as security is now technology-based. She said the Police service risks losing a lot of talent because the height cut off point disqualifies them.