Crime Combat in Developing Economies: The Dilemmas of the Ghana Police Service

This paper examines crime prevention in Developing Economies in Africa with special focus on Ghana and the Ghana Police Service. By and large, the Ghana Police Service has been in the news for wrong reasons partly as a result of several researched outcomes and public perceptions that tagged it as an institution riddled with corruption, extortion and embroiled in politics of patronage and clientelism with governments. This image of the Ghana Police Service has had negative repercussions on public understanding of its professionalism and the institutionalization of policing in communities in Ghana. In spite of these perceptions and bastardizations, public confidence in the police in combating armed robbery and preventing crime in general in Ghana has not completely waned. Indeed, records of the successes of the police in combating crime in Ghana abound and public memory of them continues to reverberate in some circles. This paper argues that the Ghana Police Service has been unnecessarily ‘framed’ in a negative limelight to the extent that its performance in crime prevention and protection of lives and properties has been glossed over. Keywords: Armed robbery, Corruption, Crime, Developing economies, Patronage, Police capacity, Police Service, Stealin