Accra (Greater Accra) - Mr. Peter Nanfuri, Inspector General of Police (IGP), said on Wednesday that the Police Service is not a "gold mine" and any police officer harbouring such a notion is at the wrong place.

"Such perceptions must be jettisoned before they manifest in criminal acts which will place you on the wrong side of the law", he said at the opening of a three-month under-cadet course at the Police College in Accra.

Twenty-nine officer cadets including two women and two Imams who have been appointed to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police are attending the course.

He said the police administration is of the view that people decided to join the service out of genuine desire to contribute their quota to protect life, property and maintain law and order.

"You should see your enlistment as a challenging opportunity to serve your country, but not to regard it as a conduit pipe to get rich quick."

Mr. Nanfuri said he hoped none of them had come in as a last resort because all other avenues of securing a job after graduating from the university had failed.

"If this were so, then I will exhort you to quickly recondition and re-adjust your minds in order to make the best out of the opportunity that has come your way."

Under the Police Service scheme of training, the graduate entrants will spend the first three months of under-cadet training to acquire fundamental skills of policing such as criminal law, criminal procedure, the law of evidence, criminal investigations, Acts, Decrees and laws, among other things.

The second phase will involve a six-month practical attachment to District Police Headquarters throughout the country where they would be exposed to practical police duties including patrol, motor traffic and transport, court, station records keeping and criminal investigation.

The final stage is a nine-month training at the Police College under the cadet officers' course.