The Police Administration in conjunction with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) yesterday began a two-day workshop on Integrating Child Friendly Policing into the Ghana Police Service here at Ho.
More than 50 police officers drawn from across the Volta Region are participating in the event.
The primary objective is to train the officers on Standard Operative Procedures (SOP) for handling children.
The Volta Regional Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Edward Oduro Kwateng, disclosed that as a result of the partnership between the police command and UNICEF, two Standard Operation Procedures had been developed for the Ghana Police Service.
He mentioned the SOPs as Children in Conflict with the Law and Children in Contact with the law.
He indicated that the workshop was aimed at building capacity of Police officers to enable them to appreciate issues involving children.
The regional commander noted that a curriculum on Child Friendly Policing had been developed for the Police Training Schools in the country.
“It is therefore imperative that personnel already on the field are also sensitised,” he said.
He mentioned that children issues had become a global concern, especially to the security agencies and human rights activists, therefore officers were to be trained in order to manage issues involving children in a professional manner.
DCOP Kwarteng reminded the officers that nothing was a crime committed by a child under 12 years and urged participants to take the training seriously to make an impact with knowledge gained.
He thanked the Inspector General of Police and UNICEF for this laudable initiative.
FROM GRACE SENAM KLAY, HO