The Same Location in California
U.S.A.
September 20th, 2011
The President
Republic of Ghana
My Homeland
West Africa
Your Excellency,
I would like for you to have a look at the following information, as we all need to have some knowledge of the repercussions of community-based policing before we can understand the issues that will be raised. This information will also clear the air of the misunderstandings of the police personnel regarding disciplinary actions taken by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) against officers who have misconducted themselves in the course of performing their duties and/or who have just abused their powers. I have learned here that the police are very angry or upset about the IGP’s actions. I disagree with them. Anytime I use the word “Police”, I am referring to law enforcement officers– police, BNI, prison officers, probation officers, court marshals, immigration officers and customs officers, soldiers dispatched by the President or Acting President of the republic, to police the community at any time. Therefore, in this project I am serving the role of Law Enforcement Coordinator.
On August 23, 2011, the media drew our attention to the relocation of the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS), from the Police Headquarters to the former offices of the Community Police Unit at Ridge in Accra. From the statement issued, their plan is to enable the PIPS to be highly accessible to the public as part of the Police administration’s attempt to encourage Police accountability. The public was advised to submit their complaints of any police personnel who may have abused them to the PIPS. The IGP’s initiative is a welcome move, but there is more to be done to address law enforcement officers’ abuses of the public, than what the PIPS alone are doing. I hope by the time this project is completed, you will be able to identify other preventative ways communities can address law enforcement abuses.
I have gathered some helpful web sites and strongly urge you to visit them.
1. Please, log on to http://www.sb-court.org/Division/Criminal.aspx
“Felon/Misdemeanor Bail Schedule.”
“Municipal Bail Schedule”
2. Please, log on to ttp://www.lapdonline.org/special_assistant_for_constitutional_policing
“Use of Force Information”
“2009 Year End Report Use of Force”
Under “Consent Decree Arrest, Discipline, Use of Force, Field Data Capture, and Audit Statistics Reports”, visit
“Bi-annual report January 1, 2010-June 30, 2010”
“Archive Discipline Report”
“Discipline Report Quarter” You may glance through all the quarters.
Read the Final Report on MacArthur Park Incident, if you can. It is important that the IGP, Chief Justice and CHARJ boss read it.
“Use of Force – Special Order 36”.
“Youth Programs.”
This information will be useful and helpful when you start looking at Police performance/misconducts region by region. I will write again next week with more materials you will need to look at before the commencement of the main project in reference to my submission to you on July 29, 2011, titled “Mr. President and Fellow Ghanaians: The Ghanaian Police and Democratic Policing.”
Mr. President, please I am requesting your help in passing on this writing and all other notifications of this project to the following officers of our country:
1. The IGP
2. Director of BNI
3. Prisons Director
4. Director of Probations
5. Immigration Director
6. Custom and Excise Director
7. Chief Justice
8. The Leader of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice
Until I correspond with you again, have a nice day, sir!
“People of Ghana, please respect the laws of our homeland before the law catches you.”
Respectively submitted,
Mr. A. Poku-Gyimah
cc:
1. All the people of Ghana via Ghanaweb.com
2. The Ghana Bar Association via Ghanaweb.com