Security Consciousness - Have We Not Taken Our Eyes Off The Ball?

If there is anything that as Ghanaians we pay less attention to, it is detail as well as personal security.

In the midst of all the various forms of crime and the 'get rich by all means' craze, which is leading to all manner of misdeeds in our society, we seem not to be taking seriously that which goes on around us and which particularly borders on security be it in the home, office, marketplace, at public places and even on the street.

Has anybody noticed that even the police are protecting themselves? Next time you go past the Police Headquarters on the Ring Road just observe the security barbed wires on their fence.

Do not take your personal security for granted — that is the message I have deduced from the police.

Topical today in our country is the issue of national security. Everyone is talking about it and linking it to the heightened politics and the safety of the electorate in the December polls.

Whilst matters of national security are important and need to be highlighted and discussed, we should not take our eyes off personal security wherever we find ourselves.

If you are the type who is out of the house most parts of the day, try finding out who came after you in your absence.

You would be lucky to get a member of your household to describe accurately anybody who came looking for you.

You would be even luckier if they remember the name given, what the individual was wearing, one characteristic feature, or the type of car he or she was driving.

It gets even worse at crime scenes. People do not remember car registration numbers, colours are always mixed up, eyewitness accounts or descriptions give scores of versions of the same incident.

We simply do not pay attention to detail.

Sometime last week a radio station announced that some occupants of a taxicab had snatched the handbags of some ladies near the Methodist University and were calling for anyone who spotted the said taxicab to report to the police.

Even though the vehicle registration number was given, the radio announcement was scanty but that may be due to the kind of information received from whoever witnessed the incident.

More details as to how many men were in the cab, which direction it was heading and the make of the car could have helped with the instant arrest of the miscreants.

In our homes, we have younger children who most of the time are left to hold the fort during our absence.

Yet, we do not leave them with adequate instructions as to how to deal with strangers.

We do not take them through what to do and what not to do when strangers come knocking at our gates or doors.

Innocently, these children can reveal your whereabouts or those of any other member of the family without stopping to think of the security implications.

You may be tempted to forgive a household for security ignorance but when it comes to security in highly sensitive public places like the banks, such ignorance displayed by those who are paid to supervise security definitely gives you cause to worry.

At a high-profile bank the other day, having walked through two security-manned doors before reaching the banking hall where a uniformed private security person was supervising events, I thought that was an ever-prepared bank.

In no time, however, in walked a gentleman purportedly to withdraw money from his account. His demeanour at the counter was in the first place questionable.

The account name and number this customer repeatedly shouted across did not make much meaning neither the transaction he had come to make.

He kept on talking about some thousands of US dollars that his employer had lodged into his account and from which he only wanted one hundred Ghana cedis.

He started getting aggressive shouting inside the banking hall and all the security man on duty could do after some seven good minutes of watching was to go near him and smile and so did other customers.

Some of us were left in bewilderment. So the bank's security person, as well as its staff, thought it was a concert at that to watch anybody come in and start behaving funny?

They did not see it prudent to call for the man to be removed from the banking hall.

If this man had entered the bank with any obnoxious plans he would have had a field day. Security was lapsed.

In the name of security, has anyone noticed the attitude of some drivers in town?

These drivers drive in slow moving traffic with windows rolled down and documents and bags lying on unoccupied seats.

A friend suffered a terrible shock one early evening in the Kaneshie traffic going home in the company of her driver.

Busily engaged in a conversation on her mobile phone and with her side of the window rolled down, the next she heard and felt was a huge slap on her face and her mobile phone snatched from her.

It all happened in a lightning flash to the amazement of her driver. That is the impunity with which criminals these days operate, a clear signal that they are closer than we ever thought.

A reader's letter published in the Daily Graphic recently shared a nasty encounter he had on the Legon–Madina road one night on his way home after work.

 He had left his briefcase on the back passenger seat behind him. On reaching a junction, some miscreant suddenly hit the back window, picked up the briefcase and started running into the bush.

Many such mishaps occur on our roads all the time so whether as drivers or as passengers, we need to be vigilant at all times.

The non-observance of safety at fuel stations and even in an aircraft is worrying. At almost every fuel station, one sees clear signs, 'switch off your engine', and 'switch off mobile phone' captured boldly in black or red.

 Yet, some drivers drive into the stations with their engines actively running as they wait closely behind the next vehicle for their turn.

Sometimes you see some drivers or passengers using their mobile phones whilst being served fuel.

How irresponsible can we be? Even the fuel attendants are not helpful in cautioning offending drivers or passengers and it makes you wonder whether they have the requisite safety training to do their jobs.

Has anyone heard about the new trick in town? Last week, I was a recipient of an e-mail and text messages warning people to be careful at fuel stations.

Apparently, some tricksters were hanging around some selected fuel stations and handing over free executive key rings that they claimed were part of a promotion.

Apparently, those key rings have some device that will track you to be followed by an attack at home.

So someone can sit down and use his God-given talent to invent a thing like this?

There is nothing really like a free lunch so we need to look out when people come offering freebies.

The careless attitude of some people manifests even on board a flight at a time when air travel has become a bit of a nightmare due to global insecurity.

Getting ready to take off, the instructions are given for passengers to turn off their mobile phones and any electronic equipment.

It is at that moment that some passengers would be juggling with their two or three mobile phones wanting to make a call to let someone know that their plane is about to take off or they have been asked to turn off their mobile phones.

You ask yourself, Should people even need to be reminded to put off their mobile phones?

Should safety-conscious passengers not turn off their mobile phones the minute their flight is boarding for security's sake?

We are many miles removed from day-to-day personal security and safety and it is time some education was focused on personal safety and the need for all to stay conscious at all times, paying extra attention to what goes on around us.

The education needs to start with our children, both at home and at school. Do your children for example know who they should talk or not talk to?

Do they know that it is safer to walk in pairs when out there? Do children know that if someone tries to take them forcibly they should shout and scream hardest to draw attention?

Kidnapping is relatively unknown but the incident at a school in some part of Accra quite recently must have been a wake-up call to all parents and educational institutions.

 We need to get armed with all the personal security and safety information from all the necessary sources for our world is not getting any safer.

A weekly television or radio education, 'Watch These Things', sounds more like it. Let us look out for our own personal security and safety and watch attentively.

By Vicky Wireko

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