Human Rights Training in the Ghana Police Service: A Study of Democratic Policing and Prospects for the Future

Abstract

A State’s democratic credentials usually are reflected in the way its police agency carries out its work. The concept of democratic policing is aimed at delivering a policing service that ensures that citizens’ guaranteed civil liberties, freedoms and rights, are respected and protected. Hence, the concept of fundamental human rights is the mainstay of democratic policing. For the police to demonstrate professionalism within the context of democratic policing, they need to have adequate knowledge of human rights. Providing police personnel adequate training in human rights was found to be pivotal in bringing democratic policing into practice. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the level of human rights training in the police service, and how it contributed to democratic policing. Based on the concepts of the Cognitive Learning Theory, which were in consonant with the UN training standards, and from the standpoint of post-positivists assumptions, an appropriate methodology and design was adopted for the study. I employed an eclectic methodological roadmap drawn from Mark Saunders’s research onion, and other suggested models. In a cross-sectional survey, primary data was collected through administration of questionnaires of 400 police officers across six regions in Ghana, and the conduct of six interviews with human rights trainers in all five police training schools. The descriptive analyses method was adopted. With the use of SPSS, data was statistically presented in the form of percentages, tables, and graphs, and described accordingly. The study found that human rights training in the police service did not meet the UN’s prescribed standards, and also, the training’s contribution to the realization of democratic policing, was minimal. Appropriate recommendations relating to findings made about key variables of the study have been suggested for the consideration of the Police Administration, and Government. (Key Words: democratic policing, civil liberties, human rights training).