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The recent involvement of police officers in armed robbery and other related criminal activities in the country has been roundly criticised by many highly ranked police officers of the Ghana Police Service, GPS.

They described the act as whimsical, unfortunate and a disgrace to the police service and issued a strong warning to the criminal officers of the law to halt the act.

Speaking at a closing ceremony of High Risk Operations Course training programme held in the Pwalugu Police Training School in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, the Director of Police Public Safety Training School, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Victor Adusah-Poku, said the acts of some recalcitrants in the service had maligned the hard-won reputation of the service and hinted all the perpetrators would soon be identified and exposed.

He asked the police to help track down their colleagues who condoned and connived with armed robbers to terrorize civilians.

He added, "it is also worrying, the new trend of police participation in violent crimes such as armed robbery and violent trickery.

That is why I will entreat course participants not only to be wary with armed robbers a lone but also their own policemen and women who hide behind the banner of the uniform to unleash mayhem and murderous acts against the very people they are expected to serve".

He, thus, advised the 165 policemen drowned from all the regions of the country who were selected to undertake a "new course" to enable them acquaint themselves with some contemporary techniques of fighting crime to discharge their responsibilities professionally, bearing in mind the integrity of the police service.

The Upper East Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCOP Simon Afeku, nearly broke down as he recounted how the police engagement in criminal acts indited the image of the police service, saying the act was unjustified and must not be condoned.

He told the police officers who graduated from the 21-day special course to translate their knowledge gained through the new trend of training given them into dealing decisively with prospective violence that might brew in the wake of the December 7 polls.

He also admonished them against brutalising civilians anyhow, adding the act could compel aggrieved civilians to go on rampage and plunge the whole nation into chaos.

Meanwhile, about 300 policemen and women in the country are expected to undergo the new trend of High Risk Operations Course as the country heads towards the less than four months general elections which are widely expected to be fiercely contested.

Briefing newsmen in sidelines, the Coordinator of the course, Superintendent of Police, SP Raymond Adofiem, disclosed another two batches would undergo the training in due course.

He said entry into the programme was fundamentally based on one's ability to withstand pressure, adding a police officer needed to vindicate beyond reasonable doubts he or she was physically and mentally disciplined prior to garnering admission into the course.

He said the police who had successfully graduated from the training programme had an oversight responsibility to embark on community anti-violence campaign.