Crime dips by 0.2% in 2017 – Police

The Ghana Police Service received a total of 201,936 complaints throughout the country in the year 2017 as against 202,276 the previous year.

“This represents a decrease of three hundred and forty (340) cases, which translates into -0.2%,” the law enforcement agency stated in its Annual Crime Statistics report for 2017.

Out of this total, 191,770 representing 95.0% were registered as true cases whilst the remaining 10,166 cases representing 5.0% were refused. The cases, which were refused, were regarded as trivial, civil in nature or false, and, so, did not warrant police action.

Out of the true cases, 24,350 cases were sent to court for prosecution.

At the court, 7,753 cases, representing 31.8%, gained conviction whilst 707, representing 2.9%, were acquitted.

At the close of the year 2017, 15,890 cases representing 65.3% of the total number of cases sent to court for prosecution, were awaiting trial.

A total of 26,173 cases were closed as undetected whilst 141,247 cases representing 73.7% of the total number of true cases, were under investigation at the close of the year 2017.