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02.03.2012 General News

Policemen Urged To Be Proactive In Crime Management

02.03.2012 LISTEN
By Albert K. Salia - Daily Graphic

Policemen have been urged to shift focus and priorities from the reactive maintenance of law and order to more proactive policing and crime management methods.

That way, they will make a positive impact in reducing crime, reducing the fear of crime and enhancing quality of life in communities where they serve.

Addressing the opening ceremony of an orientation course for Community Policing Desk officers within Accra yesterday, the Director-General of Police Operations, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr John Kudalor, reminded policemen that at the heart of a five-year strategic national policing plan of the Police Administration from 2010 to 2014 was the reduction of crime by 15 per cent.

He said it was in line with that plan that the administration had proposed several operational methods to tackle the problems of crime throughout the country.

He said the Police Administration was particularly happy with the initiative of the Community Policing Unit (CPU) to identify personnel to be trained as community police desk officers for Accra and later for the other regions.

Mr Kudalor said the Police Administration expected the trainees to deliver customer services to the community and forge partnerships with other government agencies, businesses and social service providers, among others, with a view to solving problems of crime, fear of crime and neighbourhood challenges in their areas of responsibility.

He said because the Police Administration attached great importance to their intended jobs and responsibilities, the personnel would not be deployed for any other duties to enable them to deliver satisfactory services.

“Your effectiveness as community policing desk officers will assist the Police Service to entrench public order management practices to reduce the overall crime rates to levels that will improve and eventually earn the people’s complete trust in the service,” he added.

According to Mr Kudalor, the community engagement of the personnel would also assure stakeholders of the service that the Police Administration was implementing its intended planned action of providing citizen-focused police services.

The Director of the CPU, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mrs Mina Ayim, said the workshop was within the Police Administration’s ongoing capacity building programme intended to sharpen the skills, competencies and professionalism of police personnel to meet the growing expectation of society.

Since its establishment in 2002, she said, the CPU had made several interventions to create awareness of the need for community involvement in the fight against crime and criminality.

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