POLICE VOW TO HALT BRIBERY

By Charles Takyi-Boadu Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Police Administration and the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service are strategising to take a firm action to redeem its image of the perception as a corrupt Institution. It has promised to arrest and prosecute bribe givers and takers alike, since it directly contravenes the constitution of the Republic.
In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Commander of the MTTU, Superintendent Addison Campbell said “if any policeman is caught in the act of extortion, he or she will be dealt with as per the Police service Act.” The offender would also be prosecuted at the law court.
According to her, it is high time Ghanaians came to the realisation that both the giver and the taker of bribe are equally guilty before the law, hence the need to put a stop to such practices.
This was in reaction to series of allegations against some officers and men of the Police, especially those personnel in the MTTU who engage in corrupt practices such as taking bribes from defaulting drivers and suspects to let them off from the courts and the full rigours of the law.
Though some of the officers and men of the Police Service are trying strenuously to safeguard and redeem the image of the service, a few unscrupulous ones are still engaged in unwholesome practices which continue to be a border to several other Ghanaians and the Police service itself.
After months of investigations, The Chronicle discovered that some Policemen, especially those in the MTTU had devised new methods to arrest and impound vehicles which flout traffic regulations. These policemen hide behind shops for drivers and vehicles to either park or offload passengers at spots marked as ‘no parking’ areas in order to affect their arrest.
Instead of making their presence felt by the roadside to ward off recalcitrant drivers, the policemen choose to hide and allow them to flout the law and then arrest them.
However, some uniformed policemen who threaten to process and arraign offending drivers before court; such drivers are seen back on the road a few minutes later. Some of the police personnel operate on the Achimota-Mallam highway, Kwame Nkrumah circle and in the Central Business area of Accra.
From the accounts of some of these drivers, the police sometimes arrest them and their mates, only to collect money from them and then release their impounded vehicles.
But Superintendent Campbell says the practice is unprofessional since it does not conform to the basic tenets of policing. To her, since the mere sighting of a policeman in uniform would prevent people from flouting the traffic laws, there was no need for the police to adopt unprofessional methods in their policing duties. She asked police personnel involved in such practices to put a stop the habit, since anybody found in such an act is likely to face service enquiry. Though the police have been asked to refrain from conducting road checks, she noted that there are some ‘black spots’ where they cannot leave unattended to, since lots of accidents happen in these areas.