Ghana Police to weekly assess crime prevention strategies of regions - IGP

The Ghana Police Service (GPS) will now come out with a weekly Performance League Table for all Regional Police Commands to assess their crime prevention strategies.

Accordingly, they have decided to intensify the training of more detectives on the ground.

“We have resolved to properly zone regions to ensure proper supervision and revamp visibility patrol concepts to ensure accessibility in all parts of the country. We are also going to intensify our day and night patrol to ensure police visibility and collaborate with other security agencies in the fight against crime.”

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr James Oppong-Boanuh said this at the Closing ceremony of the 2021 National Police Command Conference (NAPOCC) held at Senchi in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region.

The conference, which brought Police Regional Commanders, Directors and Member of the Police Management Board is on the theme: "The role of leadership in preventing violent crimes and promoting community safety.”

The conference usually takes introspection of strategies that worked in crime prevention and those that had not and discuss security issues confronting each region considering their administration, operation investigations in relation to the mandate and vision of the Police Service.

Reading out the snippets of a communiqué at the end of the Conference, the IGP said the Performance League Table would assist other regions to share their success stories in crime prevention.

The table, according to him would also spell out the arrest and successful prosecution of cases adding that “the Police do not trumpet their arrest and successful prosecution to the public.”

The IGP said the Police acknowledged the fact that there were trends in the crime situations in the country hence the need for more intelligence. “We recognize that we need to do things differently. We need to adopt a comprehensive approach, which would move us away from supply driven policing to demand driven policing.

The IGP said the GPS was going to make use of the community policing concept adding “in some places we need to saturate the communities with police patrols, intensify police visibility, and embark on monitoring, supervisions and evaluation in our operations.

He said the Police administration had done some stakeholder engagements and it was important “to do intelligence led Policing.”

He said the Police administration would prioritise the welfare needs of personnel to ensure that they were motivated to give off their best.

“We have also strengthened out Counselling Unit to be able to cater for the needs of personnel.

The IGP said he was confident that if the personnel were provided with resources, they would be happier in performing their duties.

Mr. Oppong-Boanuh tasked the regional Commanders to motivate personnel to work hard to achieve their targets as the Police rolled out the Performance League Table.

He encouraged personnel to be professional and proactive in their line of duty as government remained committed to providing them with the needed logistics.

The IGP said in some areas, the police had lost legitimacy because the public were not involved in their activities and crime was becoming complex by the day, and called for collaboration among security agencies.

He announced that the Police had set up new Units namely; the Air Wing Unit and the Canine (K9) Unit to support the service delivery of the Ghana Police Service.

Mrs Adelaide Anno-Kumi, Chief Director of Ministry of the Interior on behalf of the Sector Minister, Mr Ambrose Dery, advised the commanders to prioritise the physical and psychological well-being of personnel serving under them to achieve their targets.

She tasked the Regional Commanders to put out concrete measures to address the alarming trend of carnage on roads and commended the Central Regional Police Command for providing resting place for Patrol teams.

Mr Samuel Kwame Agyekum, District Chief Executive of Asuogyaman appealed to the IGP to provide more personnel in the district.

Commissioner of Police Dr. George Akufo Dampare, Director General in Charge of Administration urged personnel to show leadership in the fight against crime in various communities.