SPECIAL ON BUSH VISIT- US CO-OPERATION WITH POLICE DATES BACK TO INDEPENDENCE (PAGE 29)

19/02/08
Story: Mary Mensah
The co-operation between Ghana and the US government on training of officers and men of the Ghana Police Service dated back after independence in 1960 where policemen from Ghana were sent to the US to be trained in general policing techniques.
After that senior police officers were also trained by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Academy and five senior officers including the Inspector General of Police and former Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department had so far benefitted from the training.
The major support for the service came with the establishment of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program( ICITAP) by the US Department of Justice in 1986.
ICITAP developed and delivered training courses specifically for the police service locally and in the United States in the following areas, Basic Police Skills Instructors Development, Civil Disorder Management Control, Traffic Control Duties, Patrol Duties, Democratic and Community Policing, courses among others.
The security of the state is one of the chief responsibility of the government of Ghana who believes that education and training is central to the growth and development of the country’s policing systems.
So far over 600 officers and men of the Ghana police service had benefitted from the ICITAP training programmes which aims to transform the “cop-culture” in Ghana.
The United states government also offer other supports to the various security agencies in the country. It supports the upgrade and maintenance of a database system that allows the Government of Ghana to collect data on nearly all persons entering and exiting the country through valid points of entry. it also works in collaboratively with the government of Ghana to eliminate safe havens, restrict travel and eliminate terrorism financing.
The US also assists Ghana to enhance its maritime safety and security with financing for Automated Information System receivers and patrol boats and through the International Military Education and Training Program, soldiers from the Ghana Armed Forces study and train in the United States. Ghana's long-standing and positive reputation in multiple peace keeping operations continues with the support of the U.S. funded Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance.
The US also provides approximately $1 million in support of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, where commanders and staff from all over the world train together for future peace keeping missions.
The U.S. is providing training to eight battalion staffs preparing for peace keeping operations to Bundase Training Camp. A U.S. liaison officer is seconded to the Center.
The USG's counter narcotics and anti crime goals in Ghana are to strengthen Ghanaian law enforcement capacity to improve interdiction capacities, to enhance the Narcotics Control Board's (NCB) office and field operation functions, and to reduce and end the flow of narcotics transiting through Ghana.
The United States provided counter narcotics surveillance and detection equipment, including two narcotics detection devices ("Itemisers") at Kotoka International Airport.
The U.S. also conducted training courses to Ghana law enforcement officers focused on suppressing corruption, drug interdiction at Ghana's air and seaports, and narcotics investigations skills.
In August 2005, the U.S. government signed an agreement to provide Ghana's law enforcement agencies with an additional $200,000 to fight narcotics trafficking. Under this funding, the Drug Enforcement Administration provided a two-week basic narcotics investigations skills course for NCB and other Government of Ghana counter narcotics staff, which includes donations of new handcuffs and drug testing kits.
The U.S. is also working with the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, and held a Customs training course in September last year.
The U.S. funds an anti-trafficking program that rescues children from forced labor in the fishing industry and works closely with the government and private sector to prevent harmful child labor practices on cocoa farms.
The United States Embassy now has a federal prosecutor assigned as an officer who works with criminal justice officials to assist in the proper implementation of Ghana's Human Trafficking Act of 2005.
In this role, the U.S. is training prosecutors, investigators and judges on the tools available to them to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate human trafficking cases.