The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mr. James Oppong-Boanuh has revealed that police officers who accept postings to deprived areas in the country will, henceforth, be promoted ahead of their colleagues who prefer to stay in the cities.

Promotion duration for service men and women in that category, he added, will be reduced to three years instead of the normal four years.

This, he noted, is a way of ensuring that no area is left out in the maintenance of law and order in the country, appealing to those who are already in these deprived communities not to see their postings as a punishment by the service.

“Those of you in deprived communities will be promoted ahead of your colleagues who choose to live in cities. While they would be waiting for the fourth year to be promoted, you would have been promoted a year before them making you seniors ahead of them,” he disclosed as part of his visit to the Northern Region to touch base with officers of the service.

He was however quick to add that the latest decision to promote the officers applies to only junior ranks in the Ghana Police Service.

According to him, police officers should not see their postings to rural Ghana as a punishment, but a call to duty, reiterating the commitment of his outfit to cater for them to protect lives and property wherever they find themselves.

Mr James Oppong-Boanuh is in the north to interact with men and women of the service as well as pay courtesy calls on some prominent persons, including chiefs for their continuous support to the police service.