The call by the Director-General of Police Administration, Commissioner of Police (COP) Christian Tetteh Yohuno, to personnel of the Ghana Police Service to reject bribes offered them by the public during the discharge of their duties is a conversation that must not be ignored.
The importance of the police in the everyday life of our country restrains some of us from wanting to discuss certain issues concerning them.
However, we think the issue is important as it raises some questions.
The call, first and foremost, is an admission that the Police Administration is aware of issues of bribery involving the police.
However, the impression being created is that it is the members of the public who offer the bribes and not the police personnel demanding them.
Yes, we know there are a good number of police personnel who are patriotic and professional and as such discharge their duties without blemish, with some of such cited and even honoured.
For example, we have not forgotten a July 29, 2013 ceremony at which four police personnel who arrested their colleague and nine civilians for stealing underground cables belonging to Vodafone Ghana were honoured with IGP’s special medal for refusing a GH¢10,000 bribe from the criminals.
We want to recall the honour done Inspector Sylvanus Yao Kpogli, Detective Corporal Anthony Amponsah, G/Lance Corporal Richard Awini Abugri and G/Constable Kwame Ofori, who were all stationed at the Achimota Mile 7 Police Station, to renew the encouragement to police personnel to serve the nation with integrity.
The good case(s) notwithstanding, the COP must acknowledge the fact that it is not always the case that members of the public force the police to accept bribes.
In fact, it is an open secret that the police, in most cases, demand the bribes, sometimes by force and at other times by subtle means.
We hear cases of police personnel interdicted or facing enquiry for demanding bribes.
It therefore smacks of insincerity when police officers try to put the blame on the members of the public.
Probably, what we can agree with is what the then Inspector-General of Police, James Oppong-Boanuh, said in 2019 that the willingness of members of the public to offer bribes to police officers is responsible for the unethical conduct of his men and women.
Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on November 27, 2019, the IGP also said, among other points, that if offenders stopped offering bribes, the police would not be inclined to either request or accept bribes.
The issue is that there are various reports that cite the police as the most corrupt institution and so this is the problem the Police Administration must diagnose and cure rather than blame others.
We think the notion of the police taking bribes is so ingrained in the Ghanaian psyche that it is undermining the integrity of even the good personnel and the police institution as a whole.
Our appeal therefore is that the Police Administration must do all it can to erase that notion such as speedily offering erring personnel for prosecution and also ensuring the prosecution of members of the public involved in cases of bribery.
