Founder and President of the Institute of Security Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr. Ismael Norman, has declared that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, is confused about critical decision-making at the site of a volatile event.
According to him, the IGP’s claim that the Police Service has such a model is incorrect because what it has is just an operation manual on what to do and how to confront critical events.
This manual, he said, does not offer the much needed and invaluable critical decision-making skills and cannot, therefore, be referred to as a critical decision-making model or manual.
Mr. Norman made these statements on TV3’s analytical talk show ‘The Key Points’ Saturday morning when the panel discussed the incident in Ejura when two protesters were shot dead and the latest brutalities meted out to residents of Wa by some soldiers.
He argued that the Ghana Police Service does not have such a model and neither does the Ghana Armed Forces and stressed his readiness to help the security services on this matter.
He observed that the reason why Ghana still does not have such an important document on critical decision-making is laziness on the part of IGPs that have headed the institution.
According to him, the current IGP and all his predecessors have failed to think outside the box but have only concentrated on the power they wield and feeling very important.
According to him, the manual being used by the security services currently is based on Article 32 of the 1992 Constitution.
He said, “How you use force if your life is threatened as a police officer…; the defense of property, control riots and suppress insurrection.”
“That is in the Constitution and that is exactly what they have articulated in GPS004-15. That’s exactly what they have stated. That is not the critical decision-making model.”
“That is why I say categorically that the IGP is confused and doesn’t know what he is talking about but I am willing to help him,” he added.
According to him, when the military and police got to the site of the protest, the first thing they should have done was to de-escalate the situation.
He threw a challenge to any police officer to stand on TV and declare they have been trained on methodology or modalities for de-escalation and other means to quell down riots.
“We don’t have anything like that,” he stated.
Source: MyPublisher24.com