Meet Ghana's first female police officer

Rosemond Nkansah, the first Ghanaian woman to be enlisted into the Ghana Police Service, then the Gold Coast Police Force.

Before her enlistment, Rosemond Nkansah born on January 13, 1930 was a holder of Senior Cambridge and Teacher’s Certificate ‘A’ and taught briefly before joining the police force

Brief History

Professional policing was introduced by the British Colonial Authorities to the Gold Coast now the Republic of Ghana in 1821.

Prior to that, policing or maintenance of law and order was organized by the traditional authorities such as the local headsmen and chiefs, who employed unpaid messengers to carry out the executive and judicial functions in their respective communities.

Policing as a profession from its inception in Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) had been a profession reserved for men.

This is because policing in all the former British colonies imitated the British style of policing which was base on the British Victorian Ideology.

According to information available at the Ghana Police Service, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the then Leader of Government Business, saw the need for the inclusion of women in the Police Force and gave his approval to the innovation of recruiting women into the force.

Following that decision, 12 female recruits were enlisted on September 1,1952 purposely to handle problems and issues affecting women, children and juveniles who were either victims of crime, missing or had allegedly engaged in some form of crime.

Rosemond Nkansah, together with 11 other women, was enlisted into the Gold Coast Police Force on September 1, 1952 at the age of 22.

Rosemond Nkansah, the first Ghanaian woman to be enlisted into the Ghana Police Service, then the Gold Coast Police Force.

Retirement COP Donkor (retd) said it was on record that during the time of the first 12 women in the service, they were forbidden to marry or get pregnant and were compelled to resign if they wanted to go contrary to that directive, and that led to the resignation of some women who joined the service after the first 12.

After serving for some years, Rosemond Nkansah decided to marry so she resigned, “but thinking that women were not being fairly treated as their male counterparts who were allowed to marry and bear children, she decided to do something about it before leaving”.

Before her resignation, Rosemond Nkansah petitioned the administration and the clause was removed; thus allowing women in the service to marry and bear children and causing those who had resigned to start their families to be reinstated.

After her resignation, as a professional teacher she went back to the teaching profession and taught at St John’s Grammar School from 1961 to 1964.

Thereafter, Rosemond Nkansah joined the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in 1965 and was in charge of school broadcasting programmes for a year.

Rosemond Nkansah, the first Ghanaian woman to be enlisted into the Ghana Police Service, then the Gold Coast Police Force.

She retired and became a full-time housewife trading in building materials until she retired from active service in 1999 and devoted her time to writing books, translating words in her book Octagon into both foreign and local languages.