Police urged to respect the right of individuals

Accra, Oct.01 GNA - Mrs. Elizabeth Mills Robertson, Deputy Inspector General of Police In-Charge of Administration on Friday reminded the police of their responsibility to ensure that the rights of individuals in their care were respected.

She said individuals whose rights were infringed upon could seek legal redress against the one who violated the rights and to demand compensation from the violator.

Mrs Robertson was speaking at the closing ceremony of basic detective training course for 40 police detectives in Accra. The four-week course, which attracted forty detectives from the ten regions were taken through investigations, interviews and interrogations, fingerprints and criminal law.

Mrs. Robertson urged the detectives to be conscious of their limits as law enforcement officers and to jealously guard against falling foul of the very law they were charged to enforce.

" You must take due cognisance of the fact that your work as police officers is subject to public scrutiny and should as well stand the rigorous test of judicial enquiry. You as Police officers must endeavour to win the trust and confidence of the public by acting justly." Mrs. Robertson also called on the Police to be courageous and resilient in the face of danger whiles bearing in mind that they would be accountable for whatever action they took.

She urged the officers to show their total loyalty to the government of the day and display the highest level of professionalism as well as maintain high standards in all that they do. Mr. David Asante-Apeatu, Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service said crime detection and investigation as well as the apprehension and successful prosecution of those who break the law was essentially a technical and specialised field of Policing that required knowledgeable personnel to undertake.

He said, in spite of the difficulties that were fraught with the CID training school for a long time, yet it was still prepared to train more detectives to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in combating crime.

He said students would also receive quality tuition with an enhanced course syllabus focused at instilling in trainees desired qualities of a detective, which is a pre-requisite for maximum performance.

Mr. Asante-Appeatu commended the Commandant and staff of the school for their hard work and urged the participants to go back and apply the skills that they learnt to enhance their operations.