Police personnel urged to take care of health, safety
The Director General in charge of Special Duties and Human Resource Development of the Ghana Police Service has called on personnel of the to take care of their health, safety and security as they discharge their duties.
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He said as a body mandated to protect life and property it was important that they remained healthy at all times.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Osabarima Oware Asare Pinkro III made the call at the closing of a one week crowd and riot control course for 83 officers drawn from the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) in Accra yesterday.
The programme organised by the French government in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service was aimed at sharpening the skills of the personnel to be able to handle huge crowds during demonstrations or riots.
Establishment
He said the unit was established by the French government and the Police Administration to maintain public order during riots or demonstrations soon after the stadium disaster which claimed over 120 lives.
Osabarima said since its establishment over 10 years ago the French government had supported the activities of the unit by offering training and other logistics and this had led to the good command control in the RDF.
He appealed to the French government to extend the training to other police regions in the country to boost the morale of the personnel in the regions to enable them to give off their best.
Public order training
The Deputy French Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Cecile Vigneau said France had been supporting the Ghana Police Service in matters of public order training since 2004 and this had been one of the top priority co-operation programmes at the request of the government
She said the cooperation between the police and the French police covered areas such as the fight against organised crime, drug trafficking and counterfeiting, among other issues. She added that the assistance was grouped in the bigger framework of the relationship between France and Ghana which had been growing over the years.
Ms Vigneau said in 2012 the French cooperation police department organised two courses for the RDF just before the general election and since then updates training had been proposed.
she assured the police of the French government’s continued support to the RDF in the future particularly on the way leading towards the 2016 elections.