DCOP Yaagy addressing the police officers
The Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Akuribah Yaagy, has stressed the need for police personnel to purge themselves of bad nuts in the service and shun unprofessional conduct in order to redeem their image.
He mentioned that some unprofessional police personnel have been engaged in fraudulent deals, armed robbery, extortion, blackmail, planting of drugs and firearms in prominent individuals’ vehicles, among others.
“Until we purge ourselves of all these people, serve with integrity and be willing to be accountable to the public, we shall be pretending to be fighting crime and maintaining law and order in our communities,” the Regional Police Commander disclosed.
DCOP Yaagy stated this when he met the various division commanders and other senior police officers in Sekondi-Takoradi on Friday.
The meeting was to enable the new Regional Commander to fraternize and get to know the police personnel in the region and map out strategies to help prevent crime to ensure public order and safety in the region, among others.
Crime prevention
The Regional Police Commander reminded the police personnel to revisit their crime prevention strategies and be proactive in all their activities.
“We should improve our day and night patrols, anti-armed robbery highway patrols, reactivate neighbourhood watch committees, visibility patrols and make sure our activities are intelligence led,” he stressed.
December elections
The Regional Police Commander called on the police to prepare adequately to address the numerous challenges to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in December.
“We have been providing security for elections since 1992 and this year’s elections is no different. We all need to commit ourselves to the task ahead,” he mentioned.
He implored the police officers to engage all stakeholders in this year’s elections and impress on political parties to be decorous in their campaign.
“All these engagements are to ensure collaboration, co-operation, co-ordination and effective communication on issues relating to election 2016 and peaceful co-existence among stakeholders.
“Above all, personnel are to be very professional and must be seen to be very neutral in their dealings with political parties and the general public. Anything short of this will attract severe sanction,” he added.
DCOP Yaagy indicated that the police should be patriotic, professional in the discharge of their duties in order to maintain law and order.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi