One serious spectacle in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis is how some police officers going on assignments board public transport with their AK47 assault riffles.
As the name suggests this weapon is for assault in battle and it should be handled with caution.
The Automatic Kalashnikov 1947 or the AK47 is a gas-operated assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, and produced by Russian manufacturer Izhevsk Mechanical Works and was used in many Eastern bloc countries during the Cold War.
The weapon was adopted and standardised in 1947. It is one of the first true assault rifles and remains the most widely used and known.
Research has shown that more AK47 rifles and variants have been produced than any other assault rifle and production continues to this day.
From the above there should be no occasion other than in war or serious security situations that the riffles should be used for guard duties as it is done by personnel of the Ghana Police Service.
In other parts of the world where violence is recorded on a daily basis, police officers on guard duties use side pistols, are trained physically to combat crime and are equipped with walkie-talkie equipment to constantly communicate with their superiors.
Here in Ghana, side pistol and walkie-talkies have become a status symbol for the police personnel as junior officers on patrol duties have to carry their heavy rifles on duty without communication devices.
This reporter was shocked when he saw two police officers struggling alongside other passengers with their AK47 rifles to board a ‘trotro’ to Takoradi when he was returning to Takoradi from Aboadze after covering an assignment.
The police officers managed to board the trotro, and the reporter trailed the vehicle to Takoradi, where they alighted at a fuel station near the Jubilee Park at West Tanokrom and tried to board another trotro to the Central Market. He then pulled up and gave the police officers a lift in his private car to the police barracks in Takoradi.
Further checks made revealed that this has been the practice over the years. In Washington DC, New York City and other states in the US all police officers on duty carry side pistols and communication devices.
The story is different in this country where the walkie-talkie and side pistols are used by the senior police officers sitting in the office.
Personnel in the field have to use their personal mobile phones to communicate with their commanding officers (OCs) when the need arises.
That aside the rifles they carry are so heavy that before the police officers get to their duty points from their stations they are already tired.
When contacted the Western Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, acknowledged the problem and said one of the biggest problems facing the Ghana Police Service was inadequate transport.
He said those on assignment are conveyed every morning to the duty points. When they close they do not have the patience to wait for them to be properly relieved but find their way back to their stations or barracks by public transport with their weapons.
DCOP Alhassan said in recent times, duty points had increased without a corresponding increase in logistics and that the police administration was taking a serious look at the situation.
“At present what we have done at the Western Regional Police Command is the development of a transport system under which personnel are picked from their station to their duty points at 5:30 a.m. and brought back after the close of work,” he added.
The Western Regional police commander acknowledged that it was dangerous to commute in public transport with weapons although the routes are many. He gave the assurance that the situation would improve with time.
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