Police reshuffle not convincing – FOSDA

The Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), says the recent reshuffle in the top hierarchy of the Police to address the rising armed robbery situation in the country is not convincing.

Mrs Theodora Williams Anti, the Programme Manager of FOSDA, described the reshuffle as a ‘knee-jerk reaction’, which might give a short term relieve but not a long-term one.

She said currently, the spate of armed robbery attacks in the country was really alarming; stating that, "If the Police was on top of their job, we shouldn't have gotten to this stage, for them to be having this knee jerk situation. It is really alarming."

“We believe that the reshuffle is not convincing. It is a knee jerk reaction. I don't know how much thinking went into it. Is it something that they had planned already or something they are doing because of the outcry? And didn't the police know that these things were happening for them to do something about it? Should there be an outcry before there is a reshuffle?”

Mrs Anti made these remarks on Friday in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the recent development on the security front in the country.

She said it doesn't look like the Police was on top of their job; adding that "When you hear reports on how people report crime issues to the Police and the kind of responses they (Police) give is not the best. We shouldn't have the situation where the Police will say they don't have cars or whatever?"

She said what Ghana needs now is a long term comprehensive strategic plan that would have a crime policy to resolve the problem more sustainably on a long term basis.

"It seems this is a knee jerk reaction. We hope that beyond this more is going to be done to stem crime or reduce crime in this country," she said.

"There is no need to have this back and forth. We solve the problem and in a few months’ time we get there again and we have another reaction. No we don't need that. We need a long term crime policy that will comprehensively address the situation.”

Mrs Anti cautioned that as a nation, if we don't get our internal security right, we would get more upsurge in crimes.

“Let the citizenry be more comfortable to move about with a sense of good security, rather than people not being able to sleep well because of fear of armed robbery attacks,” she said.

Mrs Anti said: “The current security situation is alarming, if the Police was on top of their job, we will not get to this situation.”

She noted that currently the relationship between the Police and the public was very poor.

The Programmes Manager urged the Government to adequately retool the Police, so that they could deliver on their mandate.