Evaluating the Relationship between Selection Requirements and Performance of Police Personnel in Ghana

This deductive study was based on data gathered from seventy-two Police officers from Greater Accra Regional Division of Ghana Police Service in the year 2009. The study sought to evaluate the extent to which the performance of the personnel was related to the selection requirement of the service. The results indicated that there was a positive relationship between the selection requirements and the job performance of the personnel during the five-year period spanning 2004-2008. It was revealed from the study that the Ghana Police Service used to be called Ghana Police Force during the colonial era. The main aim of the police force was to protect the colonial regime. During that era the police personnel were expected to use “brute force” on the people of Gold Coast in their service delivery. The major criterion for selecting men into the force was the use of minimum height of the people not below 5 feet 8 inches. The study recommended that the use of height as a major selection criterion has outlived its usefulness in modern Ghana Police Service since modern policing is mostly based on intelligence gathering and specialized skills and therefore the selection criteria should be revised in order to get better performance from the personnel. The research again recommended that the performance of the police personnel could be enhanced if the personnel were further developed through special learning processes that would equip the personnel with IT and other intelligence gathering skills.