Methodology for training police officers should be reviewed - Dr Antwi-Danso
Police clash with Islamic SHS students
International Security Analyst, Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso, has expressed concern about the frequency by which harmless civilian protests have become chaotic because of the actions of the security apparatus in the country.
Dr. Antwi-Danso indicated that this behaviour of security personnel needlessly attacking civilians who are protesting has become one too many and raises questions about the recruitment processes of security agencies in Ghana, 3newroom.com reports.
He added that the security agency should, as a matter of urgency, review their recruitment processes as well as their training methodologies.
“It is rather very unfortunate that year in, year out, virtually consistently, crowd control always turns awry.
“There will be demonstrations, there will be riots, but unfortunately, most of our rioting ends up with police confrontation; it is bad. Recrafting the training methodologies is also important.
“What kind of people are we recruiting into the Police service or any other service? What kind of training are we giving them? Because crowd control, crowd dispersal and crisis management is a science, we need to learn it,” he said.
Dr. Antwi-Danso, also the Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), made these remarks reacting to reports of personnel of the police shooting into a crowd of Islamic Senior High School (SHS) students who were protesting.
The students, on Monday, June 13, 2022, embarked on a protest to register their displeasure over recurrent pedestrian knockdowns involving students on the road in front of the school.
The protest led to heavy traffic on the road in front of the school, and police were subsequently called on to disperse the protesting students.
In their bid to disperse the students, the police reportedly fired gunshots which they have clarified were warning shots and not live bullets like was earlier reported.
