Police to have Senior Officers' Training College

Accra, May 31, GNA - Mr Patrick Kwesi Kwateng Acheampong, Inspector-General of Police, on Wednesday announced that plans were far advanced to establish a Senior Police Officers=92 Training College by the end of next year.

The project, which would be on pilot basis, would help to train Senior Officers to become better managers, he said at a day=92s seminar for Senior Police Officers from the Accra and Tema Police Administration Regions in Accra.

Five Senior Officers, who would lecture at the College, have already been trained in the United Kingdom at the cost of 200,000 pounds sterling under the sponsorship of the British Government, Mr Acheampong said.

He noted that it was only by training and re-training that a real civil-policing would be achieved in the current democratic dispensation where the rights of all would be ensured adequately. Mr Acheampong thanked the United Kingdom for its continued assistance to the Police Service and pledged to ensure that these capacity building measures would help to bring policing in the country to international standards.

Mr E. P. Barnes, Chief Director at the Ministry of the Interior, who represented the Minister of the Interior, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, said the Government saw the United Kingdom as a development partner and appreciated efforts in that vein.

He said when the College was established, it would serve all other security agencies under the Ministry to beef up their human resource for them to effectively contribute to national development. Mr Barnes said despite the Government=92s limited resources it would continue to make all efforts to equip the Police both materially and in terms of human resources.

Mr Gordon Wetherell, British High Commissioner, who presented certificates to the five senior officers, who had been train in Britain, said the British Government had increased the budget for this year and so more personnel would benefit from the British programmes this year. He announced that they would fund the first ever international supervisors=92 programme in Ghana, which would involve 40 officers at the Sergeant and Inspector levels.

"A credible and accountable police force is central to any democratic society; its importance cannot be underestimated. The Police are arguably the most visible part of the State and, for many people, they are the only face of the justice system,=94 he said. 31 May 06