Police Ladies Association inaugurated in Ho

Ho, March 13, GNA - Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, Deputy Inspector-General Of Police (IGP), on Friday inaugurated the Volta Regional branch of the Ghana Police Ladies Association (POLAS) with a caution to the group not to see itself as a pressure group or adversary to their male counterparts in the service.

"Its role is rather additional and complimentary to the general effort at uplifting the image of the Police Service and making it more efficient, more effective and more professional," she stated. POLAS, which was formed in 1987 and formally inaugurated in Accra in July 1989, is open to all serving policewomen and interested retired policewomen.

Mrs Mills-Robertson who is also the President of POLAS said the laudable aims and objectives of the association, which included raising standards of discipline among female personnel, must be pursued within the ambit of the laws and regulations governing the Police Service. She said: "At no time should our actions be at variance with the accepted norms of the service."

The Deputy IGP said POLAS had had a tremendous impact on the performance of policewomen "who have made significant marks in the Ghana Police Service in almost all aspects of policing, especially in the area of criminal investigations involving female offenders and sex related crimes and offences involving juveniles and children."

Mrs Mills-Robertson applauded Ghanaian policewomen for serving on UN Peace keeping missions in Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, East Timor, Western Sahara and currently Sierra Leone.

She urged policewomen not to be complacent and to remember that they had to overcome serious obstacles and stereotypes to get to where they were now.

"We were regarded to be physically weak, irrational and illogical; that we lacked what it took to work on the streets. Even against available evidence that in fact, Policewomen made almost as many successful arrests as their male counterparts," Mrs Mills-Robertson added.

She said relations of the police with the public "who we are paid to protect" had not been healthy enough, noting that modern policing called for a close police-public partnership in combating crime. "We must therefore, learn to treat the public with much more civility, without however, compromising the imperatives of fairness and firmness", she stated.

Mrs Mills-Robertson observed that if the "police are alienated from the public, then we have mistaken our very purpose and lost our chance to succeed."

She said the police should show by every action that its mission was service to the citizens and must never impinge on the rights of the weakest or the most deprived and vulnerable or helpless individual. "We must be their protectors. Remember, the Police are the bastion of safety and security of the ordinary man. It is to us that they run, as it were, to seek solace and refuge when their rights are abused. when they are in distress" the Deputy IGP said.

On this year's elections and public order, she said if there was any single public institution, apart from the Electoral Commission (EC) on which the spotlight would be, it was the police.

She said the Police Administration was aware that the success of the elections would depend to a very large extent on the way the Police conducted themselves before, during and after the elections and had already developed plans and strategies to contain incidents that would threaten the smooth conduct of the elections.

She cautioned policewomen against life-styles, which attracted very uncomplimentary remarks from the public and warned that indiscipline among them would be punished according to the rules and regulations of the service.

Mrs Mills-Roberson also cautioned them against the inordinate desire to acquire property no mater the cost to personal and professional integrity.

She also advised policewomen to curb the "unnecessary quarrels and sometimes fights with the wives of policewomen in the barracks" saying that such occurrences dented the image of the Service.

Mrs Mills-Robertson exhorted them against habits that exposed them to contracting HIV/AIDS and asked them to undergo voluntary testing which was free at the Police Hospital.

Mr Kofi Duku Arthur, Volta Regional Police Commander in a welcome address said from the initial 12 women enlisted in the Police Service in 1952 their numbers have risen because of their effectiveness to 2,500 currently.

He said POLAS should resist tendencies of boot licking and rancour among their members to boost its image and that of the police Service. Chief Inspector Nella Soglo, President of Volta POLAS, the fifth to be inaugurated in the country, said organising for its formation in the region had not been easy and urged policewomen sitting on the fence to re-think and join the association.

Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa, in an address read on his behalf asked POLAS not to limit their operations to seeking their interest alone, but to also address all gender issues affecting women.

Mama Atrato II, Queen Mother of Dome, a suburb of Ho, who presided suggested that a lot more women officers should be posted to the regions since they were as effective as their male counterparts.

There were fraternal greetings from the Customs Excise and Preventive Service Ladies, Postal Ladies Association and the Judicial Service Ladies associations.