Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, Director of Public Affair, Ghana Police Service
• The Police PRO says it is not proper for police officers to be wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets every day
• She says the police is working hard to apprehend every criminal
• Constable Emmanuel Osei was killed on Monday, June 14, for providing escort for bullion van
Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman, Director of Public Affair, Ghana Police Service, has said that, it would not be appropriate for the police to be seen every day by the public wearing bulletproof jackets and helmets when going about their duty.
According to her, when the police are seen by the public wearing their bulletproof jackets and helmets, it has an impact on the public that they give protection to.
“Look at this, if you saw every police officer wear the bulletproof jacket and the helmet, what will you say? The best practice does not indicate that every police officer must at every time, wear these things,” she said while contributing to a discussion on Joy FM’s Newsfile on Saturday, monitored by GhanaWeb.
Abayie-Buckman explained, “because it also impacts on the people to whom we are giving protection. So, we are doing the right thing…”
The wearing of bulletproof jackets among police officers on duty, has become topical recently after the unfortunate killing of Police Constable Emmanuel Osei by armed robbers while transporting money in a covered bucket truck often described in Ghana as a bullion van.
The late Emmanuel Osei, experts say, would have survived the bullet wounds if he had been in either bulletproof or helmet.
The Police PRO noted that her outfit considers every feedback from the public “through the media and we look at the best practices so that the police service will not only be the best police service for Ghana but internationally recognized and you can say proudly everywhere that ‘I trust my police service’ and that is exactly what we are doing.”
Sheilla Kessie Abayie-Buckman further urged the media to paint the picture right “such that those that are not so right, they can be made right and those that are right, let our citizenry hear about them so they can give the necessary support.”
She assured the public that the police is working so hard to get the criminals associated with the recent murder situations in the country arrested.