Kumasi, April 24, GNA - Personnel of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service have been urged to intensify their intelligence gathering activities in order to provide accurate and timely information for the prevention of crimes in the country.

Mrs. Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), who made the call, said intelligence gathering was vital for the police in fighting crime.

She was addressing Divisional, District and Departmental Commanders and other officers and men of the Service at her maiden visit to the Ashanti Region in Kumasi on Friday.

Mrs. Mills-Robertson the situation where CID personnel allowed "uniformed men" to arrest criminals before they initiated investigations should stop.

She also charged the personnel to conduct thorough study of the

crime trend in the communities in order to be on top of security situations.

The Acting IGP said through efficient and proper intelligence gathering, armed robbery cases could be reduced to the barest minimum. Mrs. Mills-Robertson said even though reports indicated that armed robbery cases in the region had been reduced from 72 in the first quarter of 2008 to 69 in the same period in 2009, there was

the need for the police to work harder to reduce the figure. She stressed that "Your target should be to bring it further down

to a single digit", and said the Service was planning to institute an

award scheme to reward regions which would record no armed

robbery case in a whole year.

Mrs. Mills-Robertson said the public expected a lot from the

police and they should desist from acts that would bring the image

of the Service into disrepute. She said the Police administration would soon embark on a regular in-service training for personnel to enable them provide

appropriate answers to questions posed to them by the public in the

course of performing their duties. Mrs. Mills-Robertson expressed concern about criticism

from some members of the public when the police tried to apply and

enforce certain laws which had been relaxed.

The Acting IGP said such unjustifiable criticisms often interfered with the work of personnel and called on the public to help the Service to enforce laws in the country. She also called on the public to assist the police to

promote effective community policing to prevent crimes. Mrs. Mills-Robertson said management of the Service

was instituting measures to provide decent accommodation and

logistics for its personnel and urged them to enforce law and order

and work harder to raise the image of the Service. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Kwasi Mensah

Duku, Acting Ashanti Regional Commander of Police, mentioned

accommodation and logistics as some of the problems facing

personnel in the region. He said personnel were working hard to combat crime in

the region and commended the media for supporting the police in

crime prevention.