By Dennis Peprah
Sunyani, (Bono), March 23, GNA – The reactivation of the police Public Relations Offices at the Regional levels will restore and deepen public trust and confidence in the police in crime combat, Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, an international human rights activist, has said.
He praised the newly Inspector General of Police (IGP) Christian Tetteh Yohuno for removing the restrictions on the police spokespersons at the various Regional Commands.
The former IGP Dr George Akuffo Dampare imposed restrictions on the police spokespersons at the regional levels to interact with or communicate with the media.
However, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Ahenu, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Sunyani-based Global Media Foundation (GloMeF), lauded the new police administration, saying the move would also deepen the police-civilian relations.
He emphasised that modern policing and crime combat remained shared and collective responsibility, saying the removal of the restrictions would also enable informants to feed the police with information about people with suspicious and questionable characters in society.
“The reactivation of those offices marks a pivotal shift in the police service to building and strengthening police-civilian relationships in fighting crime”, he stated, saying “this is indeed highly commendable”.
“It is essential for the police to maintain open lines of communication with the public they serve and the public relations offices play a crucial role in achieving that”, Mr Ahenu added, noting that those offices of the police served as the bridge between the police and the public.
“By reinstating those offices, the IGP Yohuno has truly demonstrated a commitment to transparency, accountability, and society-oriented policing”, he stated, saying the “impacts of the closure of those offices was palpable”.
“In fact without a structured communication framework, misinformation and suspicion always sets”, Mr Ahenu stated, stressing that “with the reactivation of the PR offices the service has proven beyond doubts in rebuilding the waned public trust”.
However, he underlined the need for the police to continue training its PROs to meet the corresponding demands of contemporary communication.
GNA
DEN/CA