Efficient Police Administration Requires 'Effective Data Management'

Sunyani, Sept. 1, GNA - An effective data management system is very essential for efficient Police administration, Superintendent Nana Kwaku Duah, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Crime Officer, has said.

Accurate data collection and analysis, among other benefits, presented a realistic and actual situational report of crime rate to enable the Police and other security agencies to strategise and act on them accordingly.

Supt. Duah said this when he opened a two-day training workshop for 23 selected personnel of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service in the Brong-Ahafo Region on Tuesday.

The programme, organised jointly by DOVVSU and the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), with financial support from the United Nation's Population Fund (UNFPA), aimed at equipping the participants with knowledge and skills to ensure effective management and analysis of the regional data collection system.

It was also to build their capacity 'to ensure data is accurate, complete, authentic and reliable' for the regional DOVVSU to have credible data system to meet the required national and international standards.

Being held on regional basis, the programme was the eighth in the series with the Ashanti and Western regions yet to be covered.

Supt. Duah said the provision and presentation of data could, sometimes, be misleading and not reflect the actual situation because of the inaccuracies in the collection, interpretation and analysis.

He commended the organisers, particularly the UNFPA, for funding the nationwide programme for the personnel to be well-equipped in data collection and analysis.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Setina Aboagye, the Regional Head of DOVVSU, said the training formed part of the 'UNFPA Country Six Project' that aims at reducing maternal mortality and improving adolescent sexual reproductive health in the country.

She said DOVVSU was the source of credible data provision on sexual and gender-based violence and, over the years, capacity building training for them had been on those issues.

Mr Senanu Agbozo, a UNFPA Consultant and Resource Person, said the days of preparing reports in hard copies to dispatch by manual means in the Ghana Police Service were over because of the application of Infortaion and Communication Technology.

Mr. Doudu A. Achempong, the Regional Economic Planning Officer, in an address delivered on his behalf, expressed the RCC's commitment to assisting DOVVSU to work assiduously to attain its goals and targets in the Region.