Koforidua, May 07, GNA - Mr Emmanuel Quaye-Sowah, the Eastern Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education, has appealed to the police to be more actively involved in community programmes geared towards uplifting the living conditions of communities in which they reside.

He urged them to be educators on national laws, advisors on security matters and serve as a catalyst to the enforcement of laws and byelaws for the preservation of peace and order. Mr Quaye-Sowah made the call at a forum for the Eastern Regional Police Command at Koforidua on Friday to climax the regional celebration of the 6th National Constitutional Week. Speaking on the topic "Local participation and social auditing for poverty reduction - the role of the of law enforcement personnel", he said the Ghanaian society stood to benefit from the participation of police personnel in local governance alongside other segments of the society.

Mr Quaye-Sowah reminded them that within the new democratic dispensation, there was the need for high premium to be placed on the nation's core values such as respect for authority and elderly, hard work, discipline and honesty. The Eastern Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Reynolds E. Kwakye, recalled that during the colonial era, the police was used as an instrument of oppression against local resistance to their rule and this created deep disaffection among the populace against law enforcement agents.

He said sections of the society criticised the Police by for various human rights abuses including the brutalizing and wilful detention of suspects beyond the constitutionally prescribed period of 48 hours as forms of punishment.

Mr Kwakye said some of the critics failed to appreciate the challenging circumstances under which the Police operate and condemned those police personnel whose over-zealousness and professional indiscretion had subjected some innocent citizens to suffer from excessive force.

He called on Ghanaians to see law enforcement agents as partners in social development and help them in the fight against crime. Mr Kwakye said the police would uphold the limits to which the Constitution allowed them to operate so that they would not unnecessarily trample upon the fundamental human rights of citizens. 07 May 06