Police closing on criminals

Accra, October 1, GNA- Mr. Mohammed Alhassan, Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of Operations, Southern Command on Tuesday said the Police have intensified their crime combat strategies to ensure that crime rate was reduced to the minimum.

He urged the public to bear with the Police since the modus operandi adopted could pose a lot of inconvenience to suspected areas being havens for criminals.

Mr. Alhassan, who was addressing newsmen in Accra on the spate of crime level within the Southern Command said although some of the measures might be drastic, it was the appropriate step to keep crime under control.

He said, as part of the measures adopted, a commissioned Police would be put in-charge of patrol at any level to ensure effectiveness adding, "the patrol has been scheduled into three shifts, including mufti patrol".

Mr. Alhassan said the strategy would also involve intensive stops and search systems, which could hold vehicles on spot for quite a longer time.

He said a new intelligent unit has been established to make it easy for informants to furnish the police with information on criminals, saying, "We however, encourage the public not to hesitate in flowing information to us".

The Deputy Commissioner said Informant Reward Fund had been set up to reward individuals whose hints could lead to the arrest of criminals, especially those whose antecedents and pictures are published. Mr. Alhassan noted that crime combat programme on GTV would be revived with a new focus which would give more attention to the public. He assured the public that violent crimes were under control and that with the new measures, all other criminals would be smoked out. Mr. Alhassan noted that between August and September, Greater Accra Region recorded 17 cases and made 27 arrests, while in Tema 14 cases were recorded with 11 arrests.

The Deputy Commissioner advised the public to be cautious about the activities of Advance Free Fraudsters since its sophisticated nature was catching up with unsuspected persons.