The Ghana Police Service (GPS) is the main

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. The service is under the control of the Ghanaian

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

, and employs over 30,000 officers across its 651 stations.

Organisational structure

The Ghana Police Service operates in twelve divisions: ten covering the ten regions of Ghana, one assigned specifically to the seaport and industrial hub of

Tema Tema is a city on the Bight of Benin and Atlantic coast of Ghana. It is located east of the capital city; Accra, in the region of Greater Accra, and is the capital of the Tema Metropolitan District. As of 2013, Tema is the eleventh most populo ...

, and the twelfth being the Railways, Ports and Harbours Division. An additional division, the

Marine Police Water police, also called harbor patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables, river police, or maritime law enforcement or coastal police are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organizat ...

Unit, exists to handle issues that arise from the country's offshore

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and combustion, burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, petroleum, oil, and natura ...

industry. The current head of the Ghana Police Service is

Inspector General of Police An Inspector General of Police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most se ...

(IGP) George Akuffo Dampare. For each of the regional police divisions, there is a Regional Commander who is in charge of all operational and administrative functions under his jurisdiction. In direct operational matters, the Regional Commander furthermore works in tandem with the Regional Operational Commander. For administrative functions, the Regional Commander is assisted by the Deputy Regional Commander and the Regional Crime Officer. The Deputy Inspector-General of Police is assisted by the Director-General of the Police Administration, and supervises the activities of the regional commanders of police.

Regional divisions

Apart from the National Police Headquarters, all the regional divisions have subdivisions under them. The aim of this is to decentralize the activities of the regional police force for more effective and flexible

Special units

There are, furthermore, specialized police units in all the regional divisions. The Regional Commander has oversight over these units. These units include: * Arms and Ammunition * Audit Offices * Courts and Prosecution * Crime Offices * Domestic Violence and Victim Support * Finance Offices * Highway Patrol Unit * Mobile Force (in eight regions) * Motor Traffic and Transport Unit * Police Training Schools (in five regions). * Public Affairs Directorate * Rapid Deployment Force * Mounted Squadron

Marine Police Unit

In April 2011, the Ghana Police Service set up a special

Unit (MPU). The unit has amongst its duties policing operations related to the country's oil and gas industry, and the handling of offenses contained in the Fisheries Act 2002 and Fisheries Regulations 2011. The Marine Unit was inaugurated in Takoradi on 21 June 2013 by Vice President

Kwesi Amissah-Arthur Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur (born William Edmund Davidson Amissah-Arthur) (29 April 1951 – 29 June 2018) was a Ghanaian economist, academic and politician who was the fifth Vice-President of Ghana's 4th Republic, in office from 6 August 2012 ...

. The unit operates two 9-meter patrol boats (P1 & P2) and four 6.3-meter rigid inflatable boats (P3, P4, P5 & P6).

Mounted Squadron

On August 12, 2021, the

Police Service launched a horse patrol operations as part of the Mounted Squadron Unit of the Ghana Police Service. This unit would be running patrol services in some selected part of

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, Ghana.

Other

The Ghana Police Service has a women's football club called the Police Ladies Football Club, which was formed in 2007. The club plays in the

Ghana Women’s Premier League The Ghana Women’s Premier League (GWPL), currently known as the Malta Guinness Women's Premier League for sponsorship reasons, was launched in 2012 as the National Women's League (NWL) and is the top division league for women's football in Gha ...

, the first tier women's football league.

Inspector General of Police

The current head of the Ghana Police Service is

(IGP) George Akuffo Dampare.

Ghana Police Ranks

* Inspector General of Police * Deputy Inspector General * Commissioner * Deputy Commissioner * Assistant Commissioner * Chief Superintendent * Superintendent * Deputy Superintendent * Assistant Superintendent * Chief Inspector * Inspector * Sergeant * Corporal * Lance Corporal * Constable

Gallery

File:Ghana Police Service Badge.jpg, Ghana Police Service badge. File:Ghana Police Service Academy.jpg, Ghana Police Service officers and

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

. File:Ghana Police Service Mowag Piranha.jpg, Ghana Police Service Mowag Piranha I 8x8, MOWAG Roland and Mowag Piranha I 4x4. File:Ghana Police Service Motorbikes.jpg, Ghana Police Service motorcycles and

despatch rider A despatch rider (or dispatch) is a military messenger, mounted on horse or motorcycle (and occasionally in Egypt during World War I, on camels). In the UK 'despatch rider' is also a term used for a motorcycle courier. Despatch riders were use ...

s. File:Ghana Police Service Boat P-2 (Marine Police Unit).jpg, Police Unit (MPU) patrol boat P2. File:Ghana Police College housing block.JPG, Facilities at the Ghana Police College, in

References

{{authority control Law enforcement agencies of Ghana Law enforcement in Ghana Ministries and Agencies of State of Ghana 1894 establishments in the British Empire