IGP says citizens and foreigners are protected

Accra, GNA - Nana Owusu Nsiah, Inspector General of Police on Monday said the Service was in a better position to adequately give the best protection to citizens and foreigners.

He said much as the Government was trying to equip the Service, it was poised and well resolved to work effectively and decisively to "give Ghanaians and foreigners the best protection even in the face of its current limited resources".

The IGP was said this when he received on behalf of the Monitoring Inspection Unit (MIU) of the Service 20,000-dollar computer workstations to enhance the Unit's capacity in the gathering and analysing of criminal information.

The workstations formed part of the support from the United States Government towards assisting the Ghana Police Service in personnel training and other exchange programmes.

The MIU serves as a link between the Community and the Police in the gathering of relevant and timely information to enable it to conduct effective investigations into such matters.

He said comparatively the Ghana Police Service was young in terms of logistics and training and added that such a support from the US would go a long way to help to resolve some of the difficulties the Police faced.

Mr Edwin Barnes, Chief Director of the Ministry of The Interior, said the provision of the workstations represented the workhorses, which should help in the storage and retrieval of information, which the MIU had been collecting over the years.

He said it should help in speeding up not only the investigation but also the analysis of the outcome of such investigations so that appropriate management decisions could be taken swiftly.

Mrs Mary Yates, US Ambassador to Ghana, who presented the computers said it was a build up of a training conducted last November for the Service by the US Department of Justice to help in local case management.

She expressed the hope that the machines would go a long to help to build a more transparent Police Service that was committed to eradicating corruption and offering more public friendly service. Ms Yates announced that the United States Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law had so far committed 700,000 dollars worth of assistance to Ghana in the form of training and material assistance over the past four years.