Police’s Response To Crowd Violence Worrying — Dr Bukari

Dr Kaderi Bukari, a Research Fellow at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Cape Coast, has described the police’s response to crowd violence as “worrying”.

He noted that the Service’s way of handling crowd was increasingly causing disaffection to the personnel, needing a relook.

The advice comes on the back of the clash between the police and residents of Lamashegu in the Northern Region on Sunday, following an alleged shooting of a 24-year-old man by the police.

Dr. Bukari, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the negative fallouts from such encounters were reaching the tipping point and said it was time the police hierarchy reconsidered innovative ways to reduce brutalities and casualties.

“There is an increasing situation of lack of police diligence on many violent situations. The police have been professional in many ways but their conduct in crowd control is really that bad and unprofessional.

“The new IGP has taken a number of measures to ensure police professionalism and improve the image of the police, but this is a structural problem rather than a problem to be solved by only one person,” he said.

Dr Bukari condemned the invasion of the palace of the Chief of Lamashegu by the police to arrest a suspect, a situation he said could have been handled better through dialogue.

Six police officers have been interdicted over the incident and investigations, ongoing.

Dr. Bukari commended the police administration for the swift action against the officers and called for thorough investigations into the matter.

He also encouraged the police to improve police-community relations to avoid community antagonism.

By: GNA