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| Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase |
This, he said, was aimed at reducing increasing cases of extrajudicial killings by police operatives across the country.
Arase said both serving officers and fresh recruits into the force would be made to undergo the annual psychiatric test.
The IG said this on Tuesday at the
validation meeting on the Nigeria Police Force Health Policy draft at
the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
He said, “Sometimes I get very worried
when police officers shoot innocent civilians and I keep thinking
something can be done. Now we are thinking of taking our officers
through psychiatric and psychological tests before we recruit them. Even
those who are already with us, we are going to make it an annual
thing.”
He noted that not many police officers
could manage the stress of law enforcement, adding that the force
planned to ameliorate the job-related stress its personnel go through.
Stating that he was conversant with the
pressure and stress faced by its operatives personnel, the IG announced
that the force would build trauma centres to manage the stress suffered
by its operatives.
Arase said, “The job we do is very
stressful, sometimes not everyone can take the heat in the kitchen, and
if you cannot take the heat, you don’t go to the kitchen. So, we are
working to see how we can ameliorate the trauma they go through.
“I know in the UK (United Kingdom) that
if a police officer is involved in shooting, he is removed from core
police duties until he is debriefed and he goes through some tests to
ensure that he is fit enough to handle firearms. These are what we are
thinking of bringing into the system.
“Also, we are planning to build trauma
centres because most of our officers go through a lot of trauma. And we
should be concerned about their mental well-being. I know the type of
pressure officers go through.”
He maintained that the shortfall in the
numerical strength of the force made officers to work long hours, noting
that this sometimes impacted negatively on their ability to pay
attention to details.
Speaking on the police health policy,
Arase said that the Nigeria Police Medical Services established in 1975,
had grown over the years. He, however, noted that this had come with
certain management deficiencies, infrastructural deficits and
uncorrelated medical equipment acquisition.
He said, “In order to holistically
tackle these challenges, it has become expedient that a health policy be
developed for the NPF and this explains why I promptly gave my approval
for this process to commence in October 2015.”
-Punch