French Embassy holds training programme for police

The French Embassy has organised a training programme on surveillance and trailing techniques for staff of the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the five-day programme in Accra on Monday, Mr François Pujolas, the French Ambassador to Ghana, said the training programme was to help build the capacity of the Ghana Police Service in combating crime.

He said the programme would also help to deepen the Ghana – France relationship.

The French Ambassador also handed over five motor bikes, a photocopier and an image running machine to the CID.

Mr Prosper Agblor, the Director General of CID, lauded the embassy for the gesture and said with the advancement in technology, criminal activities had become sophisticated, adding; “these criminals are well organised and well resourced”.

He said the complex and transnational nature of the crimes, therefore, required sustained collaborative efforts and commitment of stakeholders across the world to deal with the challenges they posed.

“Crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking, weapon trafficking, production of and trafficking in counterfeit food and medicine, just to mention a few, require detectives with good investigative skills to be able to deal with them efficiently,” he said.

Mr Agblor said the CID had over the years done its best to build the capacity of all detectives deployed throughout the country to enable them to perform their assigned tasks effectively and efficiently.

“However, we acknowledge the fact that it is not enough to meet the challenges posed by these modern day criminals,” he said.

Mr Agblor said it was against that background that the CID embraced the French Embassy’s technical assistance project.

He said forensic science was key to the successful investigation and prosecution of criminal cases; adding that “undoubtedly, it is known to be a capital intensive venture”.

Mr Agblor said due to budgetary constraints, the Police Administration was unable to meet some of its financial obligations.

“I would, therefore, use this opportunity to appeal to our law enforcement partners and stakeholders to assist us run the Forensic Science Laboratory at full capacity,” he said.

“Let me add that violent crimes, particularly armed robbery, is another area of concern and that capacity building in strategic and operational intelligence gathering and analysis would be needed to curb the trend”.