POLICE PERSONNEL URGED TO WORK ASSIDUOUSLY (PAGE 40, MARCH 1, 2010)

THE Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Colonel Cyril Necku (retd), has urged police personnel to cope with the situation in which they find themselves and work assiduously to make the system work in the interest of the nation.
He said they should keep pace with challenges and cope with them to succeed because they were not conscripts but applied voluntarily to join the service.
Col Necku said this when he addressed a conference of Senior Police Officers (SPOs) in the Volta Region at Ho.
He advised them to display unalloyed loyalty to the state and to exhibit high standards of professionalism, adding that they should not work in isolation but must open up to other people in order to get the necessary co-operation from them.
Col Necku also advised them to prepare adequately for retirement, stressing, “you should start building your ark now”.
He said public criticism against the police should rather put them on their toes to ensure that the right thing was done at the right time.
The Deputy Regional Minister questioned whether a series of reported cases of confrontation between the police and the public in times of maintaining law and order were either due to the lack of confidence and respect for the police or sheer display of hooliganism, impatience and misunderstanding of issues by the public.
He further asked whether the police had served the interest of the public or there were growing new demands on the police for which they needed to change tactics.
Col Necku said whatever the case, they must not forget that the prime objective of the police was to protect life and property, and therefore, must be customer friendly and professional in dealing with the public.
“If public perception of the police is not favourable, the interface between the police service and the public would be rough and our purpose and existence as a service would have been defeated. The police must therefore act with tact and endeavour to always court good working relationship between them and the public,” he stressed.
The Volta Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Reverend David Ampah-Bennin, said although the police in the region performed fairly well last year, they faced many obstacles pertaining to lack of vehicles for 10 districts and units.
He said there was inadequate fuel supply to aid effective patrols in the region, adding that the police were compelled to go on foot patrols in the Ho Municipality.
ACP Ampah-Bennin also stated that the police lacked accommodation, saying that in the Ho Municipality alone, 70 policemen were without accommodation and thus were accommodated in groups in single rooms.
He lamented the lack of a police clinic in the region, which had undermined the norm that health issues pertaining to personnel should have been monitored by a police clinic and where the need be, referrals made to appropriate health facilities.
The regional commander, however, said through self-help, the regional command had been able to construct a five-seater water closet toilet for rented police quarters in Ho, which accommodates 65 personnel and their families.
He said a new office block containing four offices had been built at Sogakope with water closet facilities and renovation works were currently underway at Anyirawase and Abutia-Kloe police stations.