This chapter discusses how the Police Force in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, came to acquire its status as a key institution of governance over the period 1830–1900. Policing in Ghana changed drastically between the pre-colonial and the colonial eras, that is, from the enforcement of moral and religious order to the protection of political and commercial interests. The chapter traces the political, economic and social contexts within which the police as an institution of governance was recreated in Ghana during colonial rule, and how its role was reshaped through time. It establishes that the police had a three-pronged mandate: the protection of the political class; the provision of cover for economic exploitation; and the enforcement of the Rule of Law. The chapter provides a re-reading of the traditional role of the police and suggests that law and order are empty categories that can be filled with anything. In this case, it was filled with the core imperialist objectives of political domination; economic exploitation at the onset of industrial capitalism; and legal penetration and social reordering.