Male Police Detectives Warned:Don�t Search Female Suspects� Private Parts

Male Police detectives have been warned not to conduct search in private parts of female suspects in the course of their investigation.

As investigators, they must show strict decency and in structures where women are to be searched, it should be done by women.

The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department, Commissioner of Police (COP) Prosper Kwame Agblor, who gave the warning at the passing out ceremony of detectives in Accra on Friday, said it was an offence for police personnel to indulge in the practice since that violated the rights of the suspects.

Quoting section 8(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Juvenile Justice Act, 1960 (Act 30), he said ‘the search shall be made with strict decency and where a woman is to be searched, the search shall be made by another woman’.

Section 8 (4) of the Act, states that ‘the right to search a person arrested does not include the right to search the private part’ and asked that those provisions should guide detectives in the performance of their duties.

The Director-General said it was important for every police officer for that matter detectives, to remember that suspects or accused persons had rights which had been enshrined in Article 14(3) (b) of the 1992 Constitution.

Similarly, COP Agblor said Article 15(2) of the Constitution stipulated that ‘no person shall, whether or not arrested, restricted or detained be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’, saying any other condition that detracts or likely to detract from that person’s dignity and worth as a human being.

Police officers, he said, should therefore, ensure that the rights of individuals they dealt with were not violated and that every officer would be expected to exhibit professionalism in the performance of their constitutionally mandated duties.

On emerging crime that criminals have adopted in recent times, he said, criminals called their friends or people they met on social media that they had been arrested by the police while driving on the highway and needed some money to part with the police and would require money as modus operandi.

COP Agblor said while police officers were being notified of the new modus operandi, the public should also be mindful of the developing trend.

On intelligence policing, the Police Commissioner said modern policing thrived on intelligence and that they should cultivate informants to aid them in their work.

He said though informants were needed to achieve their task, they should not overly trust the informants because some of them might be double agents.

“Always listen to what they have to tell you and do not let them know what you know and also it is advisable that you do not abuse them by betraying them,” he said and urged the public to cooperate with the police in their quest to deal with organised crime.

The course prefect, Inspector Joseph Kunsong, said the seven week refresher course had equipped the participants with the necessary skills to effectively perform their duties as investigators.

“In the course of investigating crime, detectives usually face many challenges that affect the effectiveness of the cases they handle and this is why we very much welcome the scheme by the CID administration to train and retrain its officers to equip them with modern investigative techniques and procedures,” he said.

The participants, he said, were taken through criminal investigation, criminal procedure, criminal law, law of evidence, statement and report writing, human trafficking and crime scene forensics.

They were also taken through domestic offence, figure print and document fraud saying that course had been useful in not only making them acquire new skills but also increased their knowledge and sharpened their skills in the area of investigations.

Inspector Kunsong assured that they would put what they had studied into practice in the course of their work.

Two of the detectives, Daniel Narh Doku and Lydia Lamptey, were awarded for excelling throughout the course.