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The inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, has sternly warned that his administration would deal drastically with police personnel whose actions cast a slur on the police, and bring the image of the service into disrepute. The IGP said his outfit would not tolerate any form of indiscipline amongst officers, cautioning that any personnel whose actions or inactions have the tendency to dent the image of the service, will be flashed out and severely dealt with. Mr. Tawiah Quaye issued the caution when he paid a day�s working visit to Kumasi to interact with personnel and familiarize himself with operations of the Ashanti Regional Police command. He said the unprofessional acts of some police personnel, coupled with lack of discipline and strong adherence to tenets of the police service, was fast eroding the good name of the service, thereby compromising the prestigious corporate image, and individual self-esteem members of the service had achieved over the years. The IGP noted that discipline was the bedrock of every progressive and successful organisation like the Police Service, saying the service had not only thrown it over board, but over the years compromised its recruitment regulations, allowing miscreants and misfits to freely find their way into the service. �The image of the Service has sunk so low that we must collectively initiate actions and endeavour to redeem our prestige and self-respect. Over the years, we have allowed complacency, adulteration of our rules and regulations, and undue outside influences, to polite our procedures and affect our command and control, and this has utterly had a negative influence on our duty,� he stressed. Mr. Tawiah Quaye stated his outfit had instituted measure to deal radically with personnel who have made it a habit to extort monies from drivers and civilians at the expense of professional duties. �We have empowered the Criminal Investigations Department, and the Regional Police Command, to monitor the activities of personnel who go on highway patrols, to make sure they conform to regulations and ethics of the service.� He said any officer found culpable would be exposed and punished accordingly. He asserted that the Police Service would only earn the respect and confidence of the public, if personnel change their attitudes and negative approach to duties. �in this regard, we must ensure that all personnel, from bottom to the top, shall henceforth actively focus on citizen-friendly policing that will reverse the existing negative public perceptions about the service. I expect responsible, civil, honest and polite interactions between personnel and the general public. Rude, abusive and intemperate language should therefore have no place in our current practices of policing,� he noted. Mr. Tawiah Quaye also warned that the authorities would not take kindly to officers who discount the service�s media policy, by making public statements which may have far reaching consequences on the image of the service. The IGP further decried the phenomenon, whereby personnel disregard the traditional rigid instructions concerning the protection of the service�s weapons and ammunitions, which he said, are allowed to fall into the hands of scoundrels. The Police Boss, however, emphasised that notwithstanding the police resolve to ensure high standards, a number of factors continue to mitigate against these avowed objectives, most of which include accommodation, logistics, and general working conditions. He, however, commended the efforts of the government at trying to find solutions to these problems, and appealed to philanthropists to join hands in that direction. The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, in his welcome address, enumerated some of the achievements of the command in the last few years in the fight against criminal activities in the Kumasi metropolis. He noted that gangsterism, murder, drug cases, and other forms of criminal activities had considerably reduced in the metropolis, and expressed gratitude to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC), Metropolitan Security Council (METSEC), the media and the general public, for their immense contributions to the Service.