Stop keeping Police in the barracks – Al Wahab tells govt

A security analyst, Faruk Abdul Al-Wahab, has advised Government to desist from keeping Police officers in barracks if they want to enhance security in the country.

The comment comes in the wake of the heightened insecurity in the country following several cases of robbery attacks.

The most recent being an attack on a bullion van carting money to a bank at Korle-bu Adedenpo, which resulted in the death of a police officer and a petty trader.

According to Al Wahab, such crimes and violent acts occur at places mostly far from Police officers, hence their accommodation at barracks defeats the purpose of their work in communities which is to protect civilians.

“The promise by government to build a police barracks is completely a funny tale. The reason being that if one police officer lives in my neighbourhood and wakes up every morning, wears his uniform and goes to work, the people in the area know that the uniform there is a police uniform and it sends some fears and waves in the people.

“When they are kept at the barracks and an incident occurs, it becomes difficult to reach them for help. They are not felt in the communities,” he told Kofi Adomah Nwanwani on Anɔpa Bɔfoɔ morning show on Angel FM.

The security analyst suggested that rather than accommodate the Police at the barracks, houses be rented in communities for them to dwell in so they can acquaint themselves with the people in the neighbourhood and identify the hideouts of criminals.

He further suggested that officers be retained in the regions from which they are recruited because of the knowledge they have about their surroundings.

“Transferring someone from Tamale to Wa is an old system of policing. That doesn’t control crime. If you recruited the police from Dekyemso, leave him there. If you picked him from South, leave him in the South—So that if a criminal comes to the neighborhood, it is already detected,” he said.

He noted that the system of keeping officers in barracks was practiced in other to protect officers who are trained in the usage of weapons from being attacked by outside forces.

“In the olden days the white man kept you in barracks because he taught you how to use a weapon. He didn’t want the people to attack them,” he said.