Housing Police In Barracks Is Outmoded � IMANI

Policy think tank, Imani Ghana has described as �outmoded� the practice of housing police personnel in the barracks. According to Imani Ghana, the practice has not only outlived its purpose and it is also expensive. His comment comes on the back of the shooting incident in the Manhyia South constituency in the Ashanti region and other related criminal acts which he said could have been avoided if the police lived with the citizenry . Speaking on the Citi breakfast Show, Mr. Kofi Bentsil suggests that the police be made to co-habit with the citizenry if crimes are to be curbed. �The concept of keeping the police in barracks is a colonial structure. It is the British who brought it here and the reason was to take the police out of the community so that they can camp them, train them and deploy them quickly against the people,� he stated. Mr. Bentil also stated, �The British themselves who did it have long abandoned the practice of keeping the police in barracks.� Adding that, �It is expensive to maintain these barracks and still you cannot have decent enough accommodation. Whichever way you look at it, it is a monumentally bad idea to keep police in barracks and want to send them back into the public. There is every advantage for keeping the police within the community.�