Growing crime menace at Sege and suggested mitigative measures outlined

Sequel to the alarming crime rate in the Ada west District Capital, Sege, I decided to take some days off work to get myself directly involved in working towards curbing the growing canker of crime in the district as a Security Consultant & Strategic Analyst.

In a spate of one month a fuel filling station in between Sege and Koluedor was robbed of thousands of Ghana cedis.

Commuters along the Sege Battor road were robbed off their personal belongings and monies.

A momo vendor was robbed at gun point in broad daylight at the Sege township resulting to one Mr. Tokoli battling for his life after sustaining a gunshot in that incident.

What break the camel's back was a ten years school girl that was subject to yet another attack to collect her feeding fee from her on her way to school by these criminals on Friday November 18, 2022.

FINDINGS

1. A rapid growing population comes with rapid crime rate.

2. Ada West District (Sege) is one of the fastest growing districts in the region.

3. Job security/ unemployment has become a national security threat across the country and Sege is not an exception.

4. Christmas festivity is nigh amidst high cost of living with inflation hiking over 40%.

5. Sege as a District Headquarters do not have enough police personnel to launch a strategic operation in combating the growing crime canker.

6. There is no substantive commander at the district police headquarters since the exit of the previous one.

7. The acting Commander is not in good health.

8. The District police has only one driver, and no armed guard for both day and night shifts.

9. No proper security light to illuminate places such as public schools which turn out to be crime breeding centers.

10. Rapid sprouting of gangster ghettos within the district.

Essential Recommendations:

1. The Police must adopt what I call preventative security as against corrective security by mounting police checkpoints at 4 key areas within the district especially in the night.

2. There must be police visibility at key beats within the Sege township even in the day.

3. Deploy non uniform men among suspected crime harboring areas to pick intelligence of unscrupulous activities and neutralize their operations before it escalates.

4. Whistle blowers should be protected and motivated to get confidence in the police for delivery of criminal activities/information ahead of time.

5. ''Ghetto swoop'' should be conducted often to discourage breeding of more criminals into the district.

6. Drinking spots/pubs and individuals suspected to be peddling hard drugs should be investigated and if found guilty, must be subjected to face full rigor of the law.

7. DISEC should invite all OMCs in the district for a meeting to appeal to them to commit some litres of fuel periodically in turns to aid the police patrols to cover their stations as frequent as required.

6. Considering the rate of growing crime in the district, I also recommend changing of the police personnel in the district entirely, especially those who have been at the station for some years now due to familiarity.

7. Suspected criminals should be searched randomly even in the streets by the police.

With the above and other mitigative measures, we can reduce crime drastically in the district if not eliminated entirely.

The authored is a Security Consultant & Strategic Analyst