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A total of 130 police personnel from various stations in the Volta Region have undergone a week’s training in “Public Order Management” at the Police Recruit Training School in Ho, ahead of the December Elections.

Besides endurance exercises, the men and women were taken through lessons on Human Rights, limits in the use of force and firearms in crowd control with regards to recalcitrant riotous mobs.

Mr Alex Bedie, Volta Regional Police Commander, addressing the officers after simulation exercises said the police were ready to “carry out their duties strictly on procedures and not trial and error basis.”

He said the training, which was mainly practical, had also given them the capacity to identify early warning signals, disperse violent mobs, dismantle unauthorized road blocks, maintain law and order at political rallies and effectively use the long baton in crow control and dispersal.

Mr Bedie said the training had also improved the capacity of the police in the use of teargas in crowd dispersal.

He said the skills acquired would enable the police to handle crowd related violence, in accordance with international standards of policing, in the event of such scenarios during the elections.

Beneficiaries of the training would constitute the Rapid Deployment Force (RPD) in the Volta Region in readiness for the December elections.

In their simulation exercises, the trainees under the command of Mr Al-Meyao Abass and Mr Samuel Ackom, both Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP) of the Rapid Deployment Force and Armoured Squadron respectively at the Police Headquarters, thrice dispersed a “mob” advancing on a polling station.

The “mob,” which was made up of recruits of the Ho Police Training School, at one time in their attempts to enter the polling station, barricaded the road.

The steel-helmeted, baton-wielding police, breaking into various formations and protected by shields fired warning shots as the last resort to disperse them.

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