The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akufo-Dampare has told officers not to keep up to 25 people in police cells.

Interacting with his men on a tour of some police cells he described the practice as archaic.

He added that the practice does not serve anyone’s interest since the cells are too small to host a lot of suspects.

“You can’t put 25 people in that space. What we are saying is that irrespective of whoever is involved, whether he is a suspect, criminal, or whatever, the humanity of that person is like ours and we cannot take the dignity of that person away.
“We have to be very humanistic because it can happen to any one of us so we need to push the agenda of this cell over-population is eradicated,” he said.

The IGP further urged the police officers he engaged to be brutally frank with the issues they were facing.

He insisted that identifying the problems and taking steps to address them is the superlative means to build a formidable security service.

“We did not come to talk about a problem being you. We have noticed a systemic issue and we want to address it. So be frank with us and stop this old mentality policy of defending it. It is not going to help anyone,” he emphasized.