I have been making bits and pieces of posts about my interdiction and its related service enquiry here, and some concerned people feel they are matters of internal issues that should not be brought to the public. I have a lot of respect for such persons and some of them actually mean well if you I listen to their intentions.
They think that over the years I have been through a lot with these issues and wish I can go quiet a little bit for the storms to be quieted but man is born to live his life freely, so, I have chosen to live my life happily and speak my mind in the Ghana Police Service if I need the to do it. It can be discomforting but that is what will define some of us long after we are gone.
It can be a difficult path but certainly somebody would have to walk that path. We must not all keep quiet in the police service but they are matters of choices though. There are those who would not want to talk even if a sharpened knife is placed at their throats to silt it, and there are those of us who are born to shout before the knife is even removed from its porch. We can’t all be the same in the police and, that is even impossible as humans.
As to whether the service enquiry is an internal matter that should be taken away from public discussions is where I disagree and this is my reason. The Police Service Regulations 2012 (CI 76) under which I have been charged by the police administration and referred for a service enquiry is a public document sold at public bookshops.
I mean you don’t need to be a police officer to walk to Ghana Publishing or any other public bookshop to buy yourself a copy of the CI 76. It’s available at public bookshops at a cost and if you so wish, you can get yourself a copy of it. The police administration does not print and sell copies of CI 76 and I am yet to meet a police officer who can tell me that he or she was giving a copy of the CI 76 for free.
The CI 76 is a public document found in public bookshops and you don’t need to be a police officer to own a copy. In fact, you don’t need the permission of anyone in Ghana to get yourself a copy of the CI 76. Just walk to the nearest public bookshop for one and if you don’t get it there, you will certainly get a copy at Ghana Publishing. I bought mine there for Ghc 70 about 5 years ago.
The CI 76 prescribes how a police officer should be interdicted and the processes through which a police officer should be referred to for a service enquiry, how the service enquiry itself is conducted and how punishment should be awarded if one should be found guilty at the trial and, one necessarily don’t have to be a police officer to know these things.
If you are Ghanaian and want to know how the Ghana Police Service institute disciplinary actions against its officers, just walk to the nearest public bookshop and request a copy of the CI 76. It’s in the public domain. I mean it’s a public document that can be accessed without restrictions.
These books regulating the administration of the police service are sold in public bookshops for the knowledge of members of the public and for them to be abreast with the operations and happenings in the Ghana Police because the police service is a public institution and not a limited by guarantee security company of certain individuals.
So you see, the service enquiry is internal police procedures but they are not issues that are confidentials that are restricted to the public knowledge because the document that dictate the due processes of the service enquiry is itself a public document, and any member of the public who wish to know can know by just buying a copy of the CI 76. It is at the disposal of the public because the framers of the law find it necessary for members of the public to know.
Yes! Service enquiry is an internal police matter dictated by a public document and because the framers of the law want transparency in adjudicating of service enquiries and its related matters, they made the laws governing the service enquiry and placed it in the public domain so that everybody, whether a police officer or not, can have a public knowledge about Ghana Police Service on how they institute disciplinary actions against its officers.
You see, the Ghana Police Service is ought to be one of the democratic institutions dispensing institutional justice in a very fair manner but unfortunately many of us have allowed ourselves to ripped apart by the same organization which should have protected us from all manner of injustices. A lot of police officers have had their careers unfairly truncated because they trusted that the system will be fair to them but were disappointed at last and it is the reasons I keep highlighting some of these processes.
Right from the days of the colonialists in the Gold Coast, the police service was regulated by enactments and laws approved by the state and not by the police force itself. I mean the police service does not have power to make laws by itself except some internal policies and regulations which themselves must not be in conflict with public laws. This is because the police service is a public institution that is accountable to the public but not itself.
However, due to power imbalances in the Ghana Police Service, there are always some individuals who are at some advantage positions to hijack administration of fair processes and manipulate the processes to satisfy their own whims and caprices and for a better police service, these power imbalances ought to be checked. It is the reasons why some of us have the habit of going to court if we find the adjudicating processes sidestepping what the law requires.
Now let me tell you where confidentials about service enquiry and it related matters prevail, and that is matters of correspondence pertaining the trial and disclosure of information by police officers working on the processes of the service enquiry. They are the ones who ought raise their standards of professionalism and to ensure that information do not get into people who are not authorized for such information.
Let’s appreciate the difference between public information about the police service and what is supposed to be confidentials as far police service is concerned. Like I said, the police service is not a limited by guarantee company owned by individuals but rather a public institution so the public ought know the how the police is administered hence public laws are made to regulate it
Yes! Service enquiry is internal disciplinary procedures that are defined by state laws to be peculiar to the institution called Ghana Police Service but how the enquiry self is conducted is enshrined in a public document that is placed in the public domain.
The learning learning curve is broad and there are grey areas which are being used to exploit us. The trial has started and I am happy it has started.
Case adjourned!
Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III
12/12/22
