Security is one critical ingredient that helps a nation to grow. In an environment where security is not guaranteed, people feel insecure and thereby act in fear.
The situation even becomes more frightening when those who are mandated to protect us—law enforcers (police)—are being targeted and in extreme cases killed.
Last week, two suspected armed robbers shot and killed a policeman and injured another at Lapaz in Accra. Interestingly, this incident happened in the full view of the public, scaring passers-by and commuters at the crime scene.
Well, the latest on the matter is that the police have picked up fifteen (15) persons suspected to have been involved in the shooting incident at Lapaz, which resulted in the untimely death of Constable Daniel Owusu.
According to the Accra Regional Police Commander Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Osabarima Oware Asare Pinkro III, the arrest of these suspects was made possible through the combined effort of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department Headquarters and Accra Regional Police Command.
Even more worrying is the fact that these policemen were on patrol duty when the assailants struck. So the question therefore is: if police officers who are supposed to protect us from harm and danger are themselves being killed then where does that leave us as civilians?
Thus, one is tempted to say that then we are not safe! This is where Today would want to call on the Ghana Police Service to look at how best to equip our police to enable them fight crime.
To be very blunt our police patrol teams are ill-equipped, a situation which puts them in a disadvantage position when it comes to combating crime within our localities.
There have been occasions where these patrol teams have gone on their routine patrols unarmed. In such an instance, are we not endangering their lives?
We believe the Police Administration will be the first to attest to the fact that criminals of nowadays have changed their modus operandi and will not mind slugging it out with even armed police officers.
This is the more reason why our Police Administration must ensure that our police officers who go out on patrol duties are armed to the teeth. This, Today believes, will put them in a better position to tackle head on these criminals.
We also want to urge the Police Administration to revise their crime combating strategies. In our view, the strategy should be more proactive. This way, our police officers will be contributing in no small manner towards reducing crime in this country.
Finally we all need to ensure that we make Ghana safe for all of us.
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