Security expert Adam Bonaa has stated the Ghana Police Service should be transformed into a cash cow for the state.
The Service, he said, must be charged with the responsibility of raising revenue for the state through the punishment of crime, spot fines and others.
According to him, in other jurisdictions, the police institution is another source of revenue for the state and cited Metropolitan Police in Britain as an example which made more than one billion pounds from fines in 2017.
He argued that in Ghana people flout the laws but the monies that are supposed to go to the state as fines end up in the pockets of individuals because the structures for the collection of these monies to the state have not been put in place.
Mr. Adam Bonaa was contributing to a discussion on TV3’s analytical talk show The Key Points on Saturday, July 23. The panel was discussing the latest survey that cited the Police Service as the most corrupt institution.
He argued if an efficient system of collecting these spot fines are in place, these monies could be used to fund the budgetary allocation of the police every year, which will enable the service to acquire the needed logistics like body cameras among others.
“So when I say they become a cash cow… let’s say we have 50,000 Ghanaians who are flouting road traffic regulations and every one of them is paying a GH¢100 spot fine. Calculate that and juxtapose it to how much the police need every year as budgetary allocation,” he said.
He noted that because the wheels of justice move very slowly at the courts in addition to corrupt activities like bribery and time wasting, traffic offenders are more than ready to ‘settle the arresting police officer’ rather than agree to be taken to court and fined.
“You end up paying GH¢600 for a simple traffic offence else the police officer will tell you ‘I’m going to process you for court.’ First of all, you are running to work so you dip your hands into the pocket and even if he doesn’t want to take the money, you give it to him anyway.”
“I want us to get to a situation in this country where, just like other places, the police becomes a cash cow,” he added.
