The Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has admonished the Ghana Police Service to be proactive and not reactive in line of their work.
The Minister made the call when he officially opened the National Police Command Conference at the Royal Senchi Hotel in Akosombo today, Thursday, May, 20, 2021.
The conference is under the theme “The Role of Leadership in Preventing Violent Crimes and Promoting Community Safety”.
The Minister is his address lamented the increasing rate of murder cases in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to that of 2020.
According to him, murder cases increased from 123 in the first quarter of 2020 to 144 in the first quarter of 2021.
He stated that the position of government has remained that all murder cases must be resolved in the shortest possible time.
He has since instructed the police to furnish him with details in such cases because it is the hope of the government to see all murder case resolved.
He further disclosed that the comparative analysis of reported cases of selected crimes nationwide during the first quarter for 2020 and 2021 shows a mixed picture.
On robbery he said there was a reduction nationwide with 525 cases in 2020 to 495 in 2021 whereas on rape the nation recorded 119 cases in 2020 and 97 cases in 2021.
For kidnapping, the cases came down marginally from 27 to 26 in 2021.
He said these crimes resulted in the loss of lives in some cases but one life lost is one too many.
Another area of concern he raised was in respect to the loss of lives through road traffic crashes which have increased to the extent that 771 persons were killed in the first quarter of 2021, he lamented.
He charged the Police to propose solutions to deal with the problem of crime decisively.
He assured the Police that the government is prepared to support them and other security agencies with logistics to help them fight crime.
He stressed on the need for them (Police) to have good managerial skills and responsibilities and be proactive and professional in line with modern policing in response to complex nature of crime.
The Inspector General of Police James Oppong-Boanuh on his part said “despite the peace and security we continue to enjoy as a nation, terrorism, robbery, murder, manslaughter, arson, rape, kidnaping, assault and domestic violence continue to threaten communities physically and psychologically”.
He noted that these crimes are perpetuated by a network of organized criminal gangs who are quite well resourced and equipped to commit crimes internally and externally.
“We need to develop sustainable security measures to insulate the communities from violent crimes. We can only do this with the collaboration of the members of the community supports in our fight against criminals,” he added.
To Ghanaians, he said not only do we have a shared responsibility to support the Police to collectively fight crime, but also have civic obligation to volunteer timely, credible, and vital information to the Police to fight violent crimes.
To the Police he advised them to be professional so the public will volunteer information to them to help fight crime.
The Conference will end on Sunday, May 23, 2021.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
