The Ghana Police Service has set up two new units — the Air Wing and the Canine (K9) Unit — in a renewed effort to fight crime.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, who announced this at the close of the 2021 National Police Command Conference (NAPOCC) at Senchi in the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region last Saturday, said so far work on hangars for the Air Wing had been completed.

The conference was on the theme: “The role of leadership in preventing violent crimes and promoting community safety”.

The NAPOCC is a meeting of senior police officers, including the police management board, regional police commanders and directors of some units at the National Police Headquarters.

The meeting discussed issues concerning security, operations at various regional commands and best approaches to combating crime.

Winning back public confidence

Mr Oppong-Boanuh expressed concern over dwindling public confidence in the service and urged officers and men to work towards winning back the people’s trust by living above reproach and also involving communities in their operations.

"We do policing in communities, but we do not involve the people,” he said, adding that his outfit had mapped out an administrative strategy that involved the active engagement of communities to enable the police to serve the communities better.

"In the coming days, the service will trumpet its success stories by churning out weekly updates of cases, arrests made and successful prosecutions," the IGP added.

Police welfare

As part of the strategy, Mr Oppong-Boanuh said the service would prioritise the welfare needs of personnel to ensure that they were motivated to give of their best.

He said as a first step, the service would tackle the phenomenon of suicide among personnel in some parts of the country by strengthening its Counselling Unit to be able to cater for the physical and psychological needs of personnel.

Early this year, three policemen committed suicide in a spate of two weeks.

They were: Superintendent Cyprian Zenge, January 30; Constable Eugene Yelnon, February 1, and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Divine Asiam, February 14.

"I will urge you (commanders) to make priority choices that will ensure the wellness and safety of personnel, their development, professional standards and accountability and reliance on community and scientific intelligence-led policing.

"I am confident that when policemen are provided with the needed resources, they will be happy to do their work. We also appreciate the government’s effort at providing us with the necessary logistics, such as vehicles and equipment," Mr Oppong-Boanuh added.

"We need to adopt a comprehensive approach which will move us away from supply-driven to demand-driven policing. We, therefore, need to collaborate with members of the community and other stakeholders, such as agencies of the criminal justice system, the private sector and civil society, to deepen intelligence collaboration,” he added.

Advice

In a speech read on his behalf by the Chief Director of the Ministry of the Interior, Mrs Adelaide Anno-Kumi, the sector Minister, Mr Ambrose Dery, advised regional police commanders to court the friendship of the public in the communities in which they worked.

He also urged them to collaborate with other stakeholders to address the increasing road carnage in the country, which had claimed many lives.

The minister commended the Central Regional Police Commander, Mrs Habiba Yaa A. Twumasi-Sarpong, for providing a resting area for police patrol teams in her region and urged other commands to always think outside the box to solve problems.

The Director-General in charge of Administration, Commissioner of Police Dr George Akufo Dampare, charged the commanders to show leadership in the fight against crime to keep communities safe.

For his part, the District Chief Executive of Asuogyaman, Mr Samuel Kwame Agyekum, expressed appreciation to the police for their professionalism.