SUPPORTING THE POLICE TO DELIVER (DEC 12)

UNTIL recently, violent crime, especially armed robbery, posed a serious danger to the security of the country and the movement of the people in it.
A few months ago, armed robbers attacked businesses and residential facilities almost on a daily basis, robbing their victims of their hard-earned possessions and torturing them at will.
In May this year when the President appointed Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye as the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), he was charged with the responsibility to break the back of the criminal gangs in the country in order to realise the pledge President Mills made on his inauguration “to make the security of the people his paramount concern”.
Realising the constraints facing the service, Mr Quaye sought a partnership with the military by intensifying the joint police/military patrols. The police complemented that effort with the setting up of Tent Cities at vantage points and an intelligence unit to take the fight to the backyard of the robbers.
Sadly enough, it was at that period of police/military patrols that armed robbers devised strategies to outwit our security personnel and develop a culture of impunity to engage in open confrontation with our men and women in uniform.
When the police responded appropriately to halt that impunity by meeting the robbers boot for boot, as the lives of the police were also at risk, a section of the public, particularly human rights activists, raised concerns.
But, today, the entire society is enjoying the relative security that the police have helped to restore due to the arrest and prosecution of the kingpins of these robbery gangs and their members.
It is against this backdrop that the DAILY GRAPHIC adds its voice to the advice by President Mills to the police to resist complacency, "although the institution's concrete actions and co-ordinated efforts to combat organised crime in the country were highly encouraging and very much appreciated by the government and the public".
He told police officer cadets at their graduation at the Police College in Accra yesterday that “there is a tendency that organised crime may adopt more sophisticated strategies and tactics to outwit the police, which have stepped up their efforts to rid the Ghanaian society of miscreants and misfits”.
We need not remind the police of the highly sophisticated activities of criminal gangs in recent times because they are highly professional and always on top of their tasks.
But it is necessary to keep reminding them that if the recent successes make them complacent, these groups of organised gangsters will make life uncomfortable for the people, especially during the Christmas festivities.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls on the public to play its part in crime combat because it has been established that public-police collaboration has always yielded fruitful results.
The criminals live in our communities; some are our friends and relatives and if we make it a point to expose them, our safety and security will be generated.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that now that the police are on top of their job, it behoves the government to continue to attend to some of their needs, particularly logistics, accommodation and improved service conditions.
In the same vein, we urge personnel of the Police Service and the other security agencies to live above board by demonstrating integrity and professionalism in the discharge of their duties.
We commend the Ghana Police Service for the modest gains made so far but it should not rest on its laurels until it has rid our society of misfits.