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Ghana STATE SECURITY SERVICES
The origins of Ghana's police force lie in efforts by the
British council of merchants to protect trading routes and depots.
In 1830 the committee hired numerous guards and escorts. Fourteen
years later, the British established the 120-member Gold Coast
Militia and Police (GCMP). The authorities disbanded this force in
1860 and created a ninety-member corps called the Queen's
Messengers. Military units assumed the GCMP's paramilitary duties.
During the Asante wars, the Queen's Messengers joined the Hausa
Constabulary, imported from Nigeria, and formed the Gold Coast
Armed Police Force. In 1876 the British reorganized this unit into
the Gold Coast Constabulary, which was divided into two forces in
1901, with the paramilitary mission assigned to the Gold Coast
Regiment and the police functions given to the Gold Coast Police
Force. The Northern Territories Constabulary, which the British
created in 1907, joined the Gold Coast Police Force shortly after
World War I. This left Ghana with one police force, a situation
that prevailed until independence.
During the 1950s, the British instituted several changes in the
Gold Coast Police Force to modernize, enlarge, and better equip the
force. Of greater importance was Britain's decision to Africanize
the police. During the first decade of this century, the British
had restricted access to senior positions in all branches of the
colonial administration. This restriction became a major concern of
Ghanaian nationalists, who agitated against it, an action that
gradually caused a reduction in the number of British officers. In
1951, for example, sixty-four of eighty senior police officers were
foreigners; however, by 1958, only eleven of 128 senior officers
were foreigners.
This Africanization continued under Nkrumah. In 1958 Nkrumah
appointed the first Ghanaian police commissioner, E.R.T. Madjitey.
By the early 1960s, the only expatriates who remained on the force
were a few technical advisers and instructors. Nkrumah, however,
distrusted the police. After an unsuccessful assassination attempt
against Nkrumah in 1964 by a police constable, he disarmed the
police, discharged nine senior officers, detained eight others, and
removed the Border Guards unit from the police and placed it under
military control. Nkrumah also reduced the size of the police force
from 13,247 in 1964 to 10,709 in 1965.
After the demise of the Nkrumah regime, the size of the police
force increased from 17,692 in 1966 to 19,895 in 1968. The
government also restored the Border Guards unit to police control
(in 1972 this unit again became an autonomous unit). By the early
1980s, the police enjoyed respect from most Ghanaians because, for
the most part, they were not involved with government attempts to
suppress political dissidents or to punish those suspected of
trying to overthrow the Rawlings regime, duties normally assigned
to the armed forces.
In 1993 Ghana's law enforcement establishment consisted of 351
police officers, 649 inspectors, and 15,191 personnel in other
grades distributed among 479 stations. The national headquarters
are in Accra; they operate under command of an inspector general.
An eight-member Police Council, established in 1969, advises the
inspector general on all personnel and policy matters. The
inspector general supervises ten police regions, each commanded by
an assistant commissioner of police. The police regions in turn are
divided into districts, stations, and posts. The police service is
composed of General Administration, Criminal Investigations
Department, Special Branch, Police Hospital, and National Ambulance
Service.
Recruitment into the police is conducted at the rank-and-file
and the commissioned-officer levels. All recruits must be between
eighteen and thirty-four years of age, must pass a medical
examination, and must have no criminal record. Escort Police
applicants must have at least basic facility in spoken English,
General Police applicants must have completed middle school or
junior secondary school, and officer corps applicants must hold a
university degree.
Training for rank-and-file personnel in the Escort and the
General Police forces is conducted at the Elmina police depot;
Escort Police also have been trained at several regional depots.
Since 1975 recruits have attended a nine-month course of
instruction in physical training and drill, firearms use, unarmed
combat, and first aid. Escort Police are given general education
and instruction in patrol and escort duties. General Police are
trained in criminal law and procedures, methods of investigation,
current affairs, and social sciences.
The Accra Police College, established in 1959, offers a ninemonth officer cadet course and two- to six-week refresher courses
in general and technical subjects. Police officers staff the
college; guest lecturers come from the police, other government
agencies, and universities. The officer cadet course offers
instruction in criminal law and procedures, laws of evidence,
police administration, finance, social sciences, practical police
work, and physical fitness. Upon graduation, cadets are sworn in
and promoted to assistant superintendent.
Since the early 1990s, the reputation of the police has
improved, primarily because fewer individual officers have used
their positions to extort money from civilians. Moreover, an
increasing number of police have been deployed overseas to support
Ghana's commitment to international peacekeeping operations. In
1992-93, for example, a police contingent served with the United
Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. In addition to
supervising local police and maintaining law and order, this
contingent also tried to prevent gross violations of human rights
and fundamental freedoms.
Data as of November 1994
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