934 Community Protection officers pass out in Accra

934 Community Protection officers trained by the Ghana Police Service to help combat the increasing rate of crime in the country, have graduated from the National Police Training School in Accra.

The personnel who were recruited across the country under the Youth Employment Agency’s Community Protection Officers (COPs) module, underwent a three-week intensive training to equip to be able to assist the police in discharging their duties as law enforcement officers.

The 934 personnel between the ages of 18 to 35 took courses in report writing, community policing, traffic management, crime scene management, among others to deal with the heightened wave of robbery attacks in the country where lots of individuals and some big companies have been at the mercy of these criminals.

The graduating ceremony which took place at the National Police Training School at Tesano in Accra Friday was well attended by dignitaries including; Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, YEA Board Chairman - Sammy Awuku, Ishmael Ashitey - Greater Accra Regional Minister and Vice President, Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia.

Speaking at the passing out ceremony, Vice President, Dr. Bawumia reiterated that the Community Protection personnel programme is part of government’s resolve to help solve graduates unemployment in the country.

He said, the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) which was recently launched to engage over 100,000, among other initiatives are proofs that President Akufo-Addo and the NPP government is committed to solving heightening youth employment in the country.

‘’The passing out of the Community Protection Personnel today only goes to enforce our commitment to solving the challenge and reducing the unemployment in Ghana. The Community Protection Programme forms part of the youth in community service and security module of the youth employment agency. The objective of the programme is to promote peace and security in the country by adding to the human resource strength of the Ghana Police Service,” Dr. Bawumia stressed.

He added, ‘’Recruits have gone through vigorous training as required by the Community Protection Programme and they will help the Ghana Police service to deliver excellent result in its operational areas across the country.’’

The Vice President also encouraged the recruits to work hard and give off their best in serving Ghana with the newly acquired skills which will go a long way to promote peace and stability.

About the YEA Community Protection Personnel

As part of effort to reduce the rising rate of unemployment in the country, the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in partnership with the Ghana Police Service launched a new module: Community Protection Officers in 2017.

The agreement is to provide training, recruitment and deploy 15,000 Community Protection Officers (COPs) into the various communities to provide ground intelligence to the district Community Policing centers.

Out of the 15, 000 to be deployed under the module, 13,114 personnel have so far benefited from the scheme.