Former CID boss recounts her regrets at post

The former Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has started counting her regrets while she served at her previous post.

A massive shakeup in the police administration saw Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah being moved to head the Welfare unit.

Her reassignment did not come to many as a surprise, particularly because of calls by a section of the public for her dismissal following her handling of the missing Takoradi girls’ case last year.

Speaking on the sidelines of a forum organized by the National Lottery Authority (NLA), the former CID boss said she wished she put up a deliberate effort to improve.

“Being at the CID, I did not actually make a conscious effort to do better. I thought I was just doing my job and even doing my job in the ordinary course, I have touched so many lives especially the police.”

Touching on what she wished she had done better, Maame Tiwaa named the manner in which she relayed information to the public. She believes her decision to ‘hoard’ certain information from the public made room for speculations that cost the Police Service.

“What I would have done is our communication; communication to the public through the media. Sometimes we keep a lot of things to ourselves, we don’t share so in the absence of accurate information, the media will fill the gap with rumours.

“…when something happens, we should come out and tell the public through the media what it is. We shouldn’t allow the media to set the pace for us to be defending, but rather we should tell the story,” Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah told the media.

Among other things, COP Tiwaa listed the resolution of a 30-year impasse between the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and Private Lottery Operators as one of her greatest achievements.

She revealed that a planned demonstration by the Private Lottery Operators over the impasse almost morphed into a security concern until her outfit called both parties to find a way to resolve the issue.