Mawby (1990) distinguishes three criteria useful in comparing police forces: legitimacy, structure, and function. These criteria are used to summarize the type of policing characteristic of the three periods in Ghana's development. The first section of the paper provides an overview of Ghana as a country, followed by a section that describes the forms and nature of social control prior to foreign colonization by Britain and other European powers. The third section examines the history of the police force in Ghana and shows how British colonial policies created the police force as a central institution for the Nation's administration. The fourth section focuses on the postcolonial roles of the Ghana Police and explores the internal sociocultural and political factors that influenced the functions and performance of the police in postindependence Ghana. The concluding section discusses the future of the Ghana Police in a changing social and political landscape and suggests ways in which the function of the police can be integrated into the process of national development. 1 figure and a 26-item bibliography