The Ghana Police Service has been given the green light to recruit 2,000 personnel to augment the strength of the service this year.

Already the necessary funding has been made available by the government to complete  ongoing police projects scattered across the country in order to offer proper accommodation for the personnel.

 Vice-President Mr John Dramani Mahama, who is also the chairman of the Police Council, disclosed this at the annual party of the Ghana Police Service at its headquarters in Accra  Friday.

He said the recruitment exercise would be fair and non-partisan to give every Ghanaian an equal opportunity to join the service.

Mr Mahama said the government was aware of the many constraints facing the service and would do everything possible to provide it with the appropriate logistics.

He also announced that work was ongoing to upgrade the Police Forensic laboratory. After the upgrading works it would be the first such laboratory in the West Africa sub-region to have the capacity to conduct DNA tests, a facility which would also enable the police to create a DNA database to assist in investigations.

Mr Mahama commended the security agencies for the successes they had chalked up in redeeming the image of Ghana by fighting the narcotic menace.

He announced that Ghana had been taken off the list of countries encouraging drug trafficking on the continent and urged the police to ensure that Ghana remained the beacon of hope for Africa.

The Vice-President indicated that bribery was still rampant in the service especially on the roads and commended the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS) for the good work it did in arresting some MTTU personnel alleged to be indulging in it.

He said the Police Council would assist the PIPS in uprooting the bad lots who continued to dent the image of the police and called on members of the public to report the conduct of police personnel to the service for prompt action. 

The outgoing Minister of the Interior, Mr Cletus Avoka, said law enforcement and internal security came under serious threat during the last quarter of the year and the nation was inundated with a high incidence of fatal road accidents.

Mr Avoka asserted that in the circumstances the government had no alternative but to call on state security agencies to take the bull by the horns as a result of which the active collaboration and joint efforts with the military yielded the required operational results.

The Director-General in charge of Police Welfare, DCOP Dr Peter Wiredu, in a welcoming address, said 2009 was without doubt very eventful in the specific area of combating violent crime and law enforcement in general and in relation to sporting activities.

He said even though the police had not achieved a 100 per cent operational success in eradicating the menace of armed robbery and related crimes, the police administration  could confidently say that some substantial gains had been made.

Dr Wiredu indicated that what appeared to be a decline in the spate of robberies in statistical terms should not delude the service into believing that the battle had been won.

He, therefore, entreated all officers and men not to be complacent because there were more challenges ahead.

He announced that the service was pursuing programmes and policies that would bring it closer to the civil population to enable it to win the hearts, support, confidence and trust of Ghanaians.

Source: Daily Graphic