Introspection

Police Council returns to Ghana

Ghana took a step towards more democratic, accountable policing in March with the appointment of a Police Council. Ghana's Police Council is a constitutional body that advises the President on policy related to internal security, including the role of the police, police budgets, finance and administration and the promotion of senior officers. The police have been working without this body in place since the previous Council lapsed with the last Presidency in December 2004.

CHRI's Ghana office, based in Accra, has been lobbying for the appointment of a Police Council since it began working on police accountability in West Africa in October 2005. Ghana's President is required to appoint the Police Council when he or she takes office. When President Kufuor was elected to a second term, he failed to appoint the Council. Not only was this in direct contravention of his constitutional obligations, it also meant that in the absence of a major advisory and oversight body, the police could not operate effectively, accountably or efficiently.

The Police Council is one of three advisory Councils established by Ghana's 1992 Constitution - one for each of the armed forces, the police and the prison system. The Council has a long history in Ghana, stretching back to before independence, when Ghana was a British colony known as the Gold Coast. The first mention of a Police Council was in 1951, when a British Police Commissioner, Mr Young, released a committee report looking at policing in the Gold Coast and making recommendations on its organisational structure, training and methods of policing. The report recommended the establishment of a Police Council, but the recommendation was disregarded.

In 1968, the Council again emerged as an idea in the discussions by a Constitutional Commission leading the return to constitutional rule following a 1966 coup. The Commission recommended that the police service should be part of the public service, but maintain its distance. The Commission went on to recommend that a Police Council be put in place to limit illegitimate political interference in the police through political appointments. The resulting 1969 Constitution provided for a Police Council in much the same form as recommended by the Commission, with a role advising the President on appointments to the police.

The 1970 Police Act expanded on this core function, empowering the Council to take on a limited disciplinary role, including hearing appeals against disciplinary decisions, as well as a general advisory role for the making of regulations. This Act also established a series of Regional Police Committees - constitutional bodies that advise the Police Council on police matters within a particular area.

This period of Police Council operation was short - between 1972 and 1979 Ghana was ruled by a series of military councils and the Constitution was suspended. In 1978 the ruling military council put together a Constitutional Commission to draft a new Constitution for a transitional democratic government. The Commission recommended the re-establishment of the Police Council and Regional Police Committees. The resulting Constitution brought back the Council. For the first time, the Constitution set out that the Inspector General of Police would be appointed with the advice of the Council and would be subject to the control and direction of the Police Council in the exercise of the operation and administration of the police. This was a significant dilution of the President's power over the Inspector General, although the President still held a significant level of control.

The Constitution was again suspended for a period of military rule from 1981, but in 1992 a new Constitution was put in place, with the Police Council in its present from.

Under Article 203(1) of the Constitution, the Police Council is charged with advising the President on "matters of policy relating to internal security, including the role of the Police Service, budgeting and finance, administration and the promotion of officers above the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police." The Police Council also has the power to make regulations, although only with the permission of the President. The power to make regulations covers the control and administration of the police, conditions of service and delegation of disciplinary powers.

The membership of the Council is set out in Article 201 of the Constitution. It provides that the Council should be made up of a Chairman (appointed by the President acting in consultation with the Council of State), the Minister responsible for internal affairs, the Inspector General of the Police, the Attorney General (or a representative), a lawyer nominated by the Ghana Bar Association, two members of the police (appointed by the President in consultation with the Council of State; one of these members should be from the junior ranks) and two other members appointed by the President. The Council of State is another constitutional body that acts as a Presidential adviser; it is analogous to a council of elders that advises a chief in traditional governance in Ghana.

The Police Council lapses with Presidential terms, and it is essential that the President appoints a fresh Council at the beginning of each new term. President Kufuor failed to appoint the Council at the beginning of his new term, and CHRI began a lobbying campaign to get the Council appointed. CHRI's efforts ranged from calling on members of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Interior to raise the issue in Parliament, meeting with the Minister of the Interior, making statements to the President during the President's People's Assembly in February, writing to the President and talking about the Council on local radio.

CHRI's work paid off with the announcement on Friday 10 March 2006 that the President had inaugurated a new Police Council, with Justice Scott Glenn Baddoo, a retired Supreme Court Judge, as Chair. The Council has met once a month since it was reappointed in March. The meetings are considered to be matters of national security and so are not open to the public. A member of the Council, Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana and a leading writer on criminal law and policing in Ghana, has said that one of the immediate priorities of the Council is the establishment of the Regional Police Committees, the bodies that advise the Council on local police matters. Ghana is divided up into 10 administrative regions, and the Constitution provides for a Regional Police Committee in each of these regions. Each Committee is made up of the Regional Minister (who is Chair), the two most senior police in the region, a representative of each of the Districts in the region (appointed by District Assemblies), a local lawyer (nominated by the Ghana Bar Council), a representative of the Attorney-General, and a representative of the Regional House of Chiefs.

The Police Council has not been as effective as it could have been. It has been hampered by an inadequate legal framework, inconsistent leadership and political turmoil. The composition and functions of the Council are set out in the 1970 Police Act, which is based around the 1969 Constitution. This version of the Constitution has been long replaced, and the outdated Police Act does not sit well with the current 1992 Constitution. Leadership has also been an issue; the chairmanship has varied greatly throughout the Council's history, from members of the Public Services Commission, to the Inspector General of Police to Presidential appointees. Between 2000 and 2004, the Council did not meet often as the Chair was ill; the President made no move to find a physically fit Chair to replace him. Finally, the Police Council has suffered with other public institutions in Ghana as a result of significant political unrest and the constant suspension of democratic, Constitutional rule since independence. Between independence in 1957 and constitutional rule in 1993, Ghana was ruled by four regimes that interfered with the operation of constitutional bodies like the Council. The lack of political will to make the Council a key, permanent facet of policing in Ghana is also demonstrated by the current President's willingness to allow the illness of a Council leader to prevent the operation of the Council and reluctance to appoint a new Council following the lapse of the old Council.

The reappointment of the Police Council is an important first step towards ensuring that Ghana enjoys the benefits of a democratic, accountable and transparent police service. Informally, members of the Council have expressed their desire to meet their Constitutional obligations and give Ghana a better police. Key aspects that the Council will have to consider are a review of the policing legal framework to develop clearer terms of reference for the Council and the Regional Police Committees, particularly with an eye on improving transparency and the drafting and implementation of a National Policy on Policing. The Police Council has vast potential as an oversight mechanism and buffer against illegitimate political interference in the police; the hope is that it is in this incarnation that the Council finally fulfils the potential that has lain dormant for the last 35 years.

Daniel Woods
Access to Justice Programme
CHRI

Edmund Foley
Ghana Police Accountability Project
CHRI West Africa