WELL DONE, ROTARY CLUB (JULY 5, 2010)

THE security of the people, as well as general law and order, is a major prerequisite for any meaningful development. Governments and communities spend a big portion of their resources to secure lives and property.
Business concerns and investors also look out for secure environments to invest their money because no human endeavour can thrive where miscreants have a field day.
It is for this reason that President J.E.A. Mills, on assumption of office, pledged to do all in his power to ensure the security of the people. That pledge came in the wake of widespread armed robberies and other criminal activities in the country that made many people live in a state of fear.
The Ghana Police Service was forced to go back to the drawing board to map out strategies to deal with the menace of armed robbery and other criminal acts.
In retrospect, the fight that the police and the other security agencies took to the criminal gangs was not a walk-over, as the armed robbers engaged in gun battles with the security agencies on many occasions.
The Daily Graphic expresses its condolences to the families of the security men who lost their lives during the fight against armed robbery and the victims of the robberies in the country.
While we commend the police for their efforts at dealing with criminal activities, we are also happy with the awareness on the part of some members of the public of the need to partner the police to fight crime.
Police-public partnerships are required to fight crime, for, after all, the criminals live among the people in the communities. Recent concerns over the lukewarm attitude of residents to distress calls from their neighbours do not augur well for crime combat.
Although our natural instincts tell us not to come out when guns are booming, the people in the neighbourhood can devise a means to fight the criminals if they strengthen their neighbourhood watch committees.
The Daily Graphic appeals to the Police Administration to revive moribund watch committees in the country so that they can complement the efforts of security personnel to fight crime.
This move is urgent because of the low number of police personnel in the country, presently put at about 23,000, against a population of 23 million.
The constraints facing the police and other security personnel do not relate only to the human resource levels but also poor office and residential accommodation and lack of logistics such as vehicles and communication gadgets.
The government has been doing its best within the constraints of the budget but the support is not enough to resolve the challenges facing the security agencies.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, commends the Rotary Club of Tema for constructing a police station at Tema Community 11 to serve four other communities in the Tema metropolis.
The Rotary Club has demonstrated that it is a public-spirited organisation that is willing to contribute to the fight against criminals.
It has been said time and again that crime combat cannot be effective if members of the public refuse to lend their support.
The Daily Graphic again uses this platform to echo the plea to the public to assist the police with information to prevent or detect crime.
Some members of the public are reluctant to volunteer information, for fear of reprisals from criminal gangs who are fed information from their agents in the security agencies.
The Daily Graphic thinks the need to open a new chapter in police-public relations is long overdue, since the partnership will help deal more decisively with the menace of criminal gangs.