Citizen-Police forum held in Somanya District as part of the TAC project

Promoting citizen-police engagement

The Together against corruption project by Socioserve Ghana, iWatch Africa and JMK Consulting with support from Star Ghana Foundation and funding from EU, Danida and UKaid brought together the Ghana Police service, the people of Somanya and relevant stakeholders including the District Assembly, NCCE and Chraj to discuss corruption among the police in the discharge of their duties.

It is the first time the police and the community held a dialog on matters arising in the community as far as rule of law and security is concerned. Some issues raised by community members had to do with police corruption on the roads through extortion of drivers and also corruption in the discharge of cases brought to them in their offices.
The police also lamented the phenomena of ‘big men’ or people with influence interfering with the discharge of justice. The opinion leaders of the community assured the police that citizens will be law abiding and will refrain from taking matters into their own hands to reduce tensions and conflicts involving community members and the police.

The community members were encouraged to be bold in reporting police officers who misconduct themselves through appropriate channels and were also given a special number to call to assist police in investigations and reporting crimes.

Read Also: Overview of the ‘Together Against Corruption’ Project [infographic]

The forum brought great relief to the people and also served as a bridge between the citizens and the police in the Somanya district. Speaking to iWatch Africa, the Police commander of the Somanya district ACP Isaac Otsin applauded the organizers of the forum for bringing them closer to the people. He insisted that the gap between citizens and police in the district has been bridged by 70%, adding that subsequent meetings will greatly improve the relationship between the two factions to the benefit of the entire district. This he beliefs will help the police in the discharge of their mandate and help to protect lives and property.

Below are some pictures:

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Participants at the TAC forum

iwatch-africa-police-citizen-forum-Tac

By Justice Kumordzi | iWatch Africa

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Gideon Sarpong

Gideon Sarpong is a policy analyst and media practitioner with close to a decade of experience in policy, data and investigative journalism. Gideon is a co-founder of iWatch Africa. He is an author; a fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), Thomson Reuters Foundation, Commonwealth Youth Program ,Free Press Unlimited and Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative. Gideon is the founder of Sustainable Ocean Alliance Ghana. He was a 2021 Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute, School of Trans-national Governance in Florence, Italy and 2020/21 Open Internet For Democracy Leader. Gideon was also a 2022 Visiting Scholar/Reuters Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK and was selected as a 2022 TRF/Trust Conference Changemaker. He is currently the Africa Regional Cordinator for Environmental Justice Foundation and a 2023 Pulitzer ORN Fellow. Email: gideonsarpong@iwatchafrica.org.

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