A former US army staff sergeant, Dr Ishmael Norman, says a lot of Ghanaian police officers do not deserve to be in the Ghana Police Service, claiming many of them are overweight.

Most of the police officers, he said, have been confined to “air-conditioned offices” for which reason “Many of them are so overweight that they don’t deserve to be in the police force; they don’t!”

Speaking on general security in the country in a pre SONA discussion on TV3 Thursday, the ex-soldier painted a serious picture about the situation, indicating the overweight phenomenon among the policemen is the cause of the indiscriminate shooting of suspected criminals.

“That’s why they shoot so easily because if the guy [policeman] cannot run after a criminal, the next best thing is to shoot,” he explained.

The security expert, who is also a lawyer, noted the police do not know how to deescalate conflict, and underscored the need to reorganise the whole police structure.

“They need to really reorganise the whole structure,” he said, adding “Within the homicide unit, there should be a cold case unit”.

He also stressed the need for the Police to bring back visibility policing, saying “it was a good thing”

Despite these challenges, he said the police are generally “doing a good job”.