Arming Police on traffic duties a knee-jerk reaction - Ras Mubarak

Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, Mohammed Ras Mubarak, has criticised the directive by the Interior Minister that police on traffic duties be armed.

“The attempt to arm an overworked, underpaid, poorly trained and stressed up police service is a knee-jerk reaction to a deep-seated problem,” the MP who recently lost the primary to be reelected wrote on Facebook sighted by MyNewsGh.com.

The order by the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, to the Inspector General of Police( IGP) to arm police officers on traffic duties follows the killing of five officers within a month, with the latest being the killing of two officers at a checkpoint in Buduburam.

But Ras Mubarak argues that “what the police officers in Ghana need more than anything are not guns in the streets but body cameras, dash cams on their vehicles, physical conditioning, maintaining a mental wellbeing, retaining and not too long shifts.”

Ras Mubarak also thinks that people have been emboldened in recent times to attack law enforcement officers because some of them have gotten away with it while the politicising of the service has also “weakened the resolve of many fine senior officers to take decisions that may not be popular with the ruling government.”

Full text below:

“My brief take on the rising incidences of assault on police officers:

What traffic police officers in Ghana need more than anything are not guns in the streets but body cameras, dash cams on their vehicles, Physical conditioning, maintaining a mental wellbeing, retraining and not-too-long shifts.

The attempt to arm an overworked, underpaid, poorly trained and stressed up police service is knee-jerk reaction to a deep-seated problem.

People have been emboldened in recent times to attack law enforcement officers and some of them, have gotten away with such brazen attacks. I remember cautioning, when ASP Nanka Bruce, a senior officer in uniform, was assaulted at the presidency, that until his attackers were fished out and prosecuted, others will feel emboldened to do same. That’s exactly what we have seen over time.

Truth be told, the police service has also been too politicised. It has weakened the resolve of many fine senior officers to take decisions that may not be popular with the ruling government.

There are some bad cops too – very corrupt ones, who have to be weeded out of the service.

May the souls of all the slain officers rest in perfect peace.”