The Police Service Needs Our Support - Prez Akufo-Addo To Ghanaians

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has encouraged the citizenry to support the Police with resources and logistics to improve effectiveness in their operations.

“Security is a collective responsibility, and each citizen has a role to play. Let us support the Police with resources to help Government achieve its vision of making the country a safe haven for all,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo said this on Tuesday at the inauguration and handing over ceremony of a two-storey Police Professional Standards Bureau (PPSB) Headquarters to the Police Administration in Accra.

The building, worth almost GHC 4 million was donated by the TOBINCO Group of Companies.

In a speech read on his behalf by Mr Ambrose Dery, Minister for the Interior, the President said for the Police to become a world-class institution, they needed to discharge their duties in a professional and ethical manner with support of the citizens.

He said that would also require that internal measures were put in place to check Police personnel in their day-to-day activities.

The President noted that under Dr George Akuffo Dampare, the Inspector-General of Police, the Police Administration had redefined strategies to make the PPSB more proactive in ensuring professional standards within the Service and prevent instances of unprofessionalism.

He said some of the strategies he was privy to, included the setting up of regional PPSBs across all the 18 Police Regions to bring the Bureau to the doorstep of all and commended the Administration.

The President said the Police was also about setting up a complaint reporting hotline for people who felt aggrieved during any engagement with the Police to call and seek redress in real time.

He said the Police would also establish a police body-worn cameras monitoring centre to provide a 24-hour monitoring of personnel who would be required to wear the cameras during their duty, saying, “Moving forward, we are working towards acquiring about 20,000 body cameras to be able to monitor the activities of our Police. This would solve the issue of who did what and make police more accountable.”

“Also there would be the activation of a WhatsApp number for members of the public to send video footages of Police conducts, both good and bad for investigation and or commendation as the case may be,” he said.