Police women urged to strive for higher ranks

The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Nathan Kofi Boakye, has urged young women who have joined the service to embrace hard work, determination and resilience as they strive to earn higher positions in the Police Service.

They should neither be saddled with family issues nor accept mediocrity and stereotyping from their male counterparts whilst also working assiduously to remove any hindrances that would stand in their way of upgrading themselves.

DCOP Boakye was delivering a lecture on; “Enlightened by our Past, Enriching our Present and Envisioning our Future,” during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Ashanti Regional Chapter of the Police Ladies Association (POLAG).

The lecture is one of the high points of the week-long celebration which attracted traditional leaders including Nana Baffour Owusu Asare, Bantamahene and female colleagues from the other security agencies.

“Gone were those days when the highest position a woman could earn in the service was Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) but now the sky is the limit for women who duly qualify,” he said.

DCOP Boakye called on them to use their benign and tender female qualities to positively enhance the corporate image of the service and urged them to make discipline, high moral conduct and respect for clients their watchword, especially those at the charge offices.

“By doing this, you would only be fulfilling your core mandate and the primary purpose that informed the recruitment of women into the Police Service which was to help mitigate the perceived coarse and brutish nature of the police," he said.

He said: "Your positive feminine attribute to subtly elicit information from the most reluctant, was also a major consideration”.

He expressed concern about non-adherence to the prescribed dress code saying the provocative make-ups, hairstyles, altering police uniform to make it too tight or skimpy is a trend now creeping into the service and this needed to stop.

DCOP Boakye called on the female senior officers to mentor the upcoming ones to do away with lateness, absenteeism, laziness and attitudes that could impede their progress to be at par with the male counterparts.

He lauded women who have in diverse ways contributed to uplift the image of the police and singled out for praise Mrs Theodora Wood, the current Chief Justice (CJ), who started as a police woman and later rose to the position of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) before entering the Judicial Service.

Madam Helen Cobbina, a former Police Officer, advised the ladies to abide by the two-year mandatory service before they got married and become pregnant as this had been reduced from five years in the past when defaulters risked resigning from the service.

If followed, it would help reduce pressure on the already limited personnel, the stereotyping and also pave way for others to be enrolled.

Also in attendance were Nana Baffour Owusu Asare, Bantamahene, queens, and female colleagues from sister security agencies.