1999 policing style cannot be used in 2023 – Wa West MP
The Wa West MP says the recent attacks on some security personnel threaten the nation’s security.
Peter Lanchene Toobu, therefore, wants an immediate review of the mode of operations.
According to him, the world keeps evolving and citizens have become more complex and sophisticated hence the policing technique that was implemented previously cannot be used in recent times to achieve the same results.
“The 1990 policing style cannot be used in 2023 and we need to invest heavily in police training, we need to invest heavily in police recruitment and positive vetting.
“It tells us as a people that we should begin to look at police public relations, that as the police institution grows in numbers, heading towards 50,000, and as the citizens become more complicated and sophisticated we need to think differently,” he said in an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show on Monday.
His comment comes in the wake of the Police arresting six persons last Friday for attacking a police officer at the Wono Akotsosu snap checkpoint in the Kumawu District of the Ashanti Region.
This follows a similar attack on two police personnel by illegal miners at Axim in the Western Region.
As result, the legislator who was also a former police officer says that the criteria for police recruitment must also be reviewed.
He mentioned that most of the current police officers are underserving of the job but are only there to get paid monthly and earn a living.
“You cannot get people uniforms to wear when they have not gone through positive vetting, it will come back to bite us, there are many people in the uniform and they are not supposed to be in uniforms, but they’re looking for a job to earn a salary at the end of the month.”
“The passion to wear the uniform is not there, they want a salary, if you’re looking for money and you find yourself wearing any of the uniforms, you’re out there for danger, and you’re actually a danger to the security system that you serve and that’s not the right thing to do,” Mr Toobu added.
Separate attacks on some police and military personnel in different parts of the country have become a concern.
