COP Yaagy Akuriba speaking at the function
About Fifteen Thousand Community Policing Assistants have been attached to the police service to assist in fighting crime in the country.
The CPAs, who are being trained in batches, when out, will work in their various communities and report to the district commanders.
In view of that, district commanders and other senior police personnel working within the Accra region have been given training on the new Community Policing Assistants (CPA’s) module of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the Transformation Agenda of the Ghana Police Service.
The duty of the district commanders are to train the CPAs working within their districts in communication and observation skills, intelligence gathering, basic police duties in order to enable them interact effectively and be accessible to the communities.
COP Yaagy Akuriba, Director General in charge of the National Police Department (NPD), said the concept is a crime reduction strategy that focuses on improved visibility and accessibility of police in the communities.
“The community policing assistants shall assist the police and is expected to create sustainable intelligence gathering machinery and also serve as a proactive measure in planning against radicalization of the youth of the electoral area.
“The CPAs will work under the supervision of a police officer in their day to day activities to make the police visible to the people.
“This is part of efforts by the service to win back the confidence and trust and support of the public,” COP Akuriba stated.
He urged the commanders to create Community Watch Associations in their respective areas since the indigenes know the communities and crime associated with it better than the personnel posted to work there.
The Police commanders were entreated to work hard to win back the public trust and confidence through community engagement and support.
“Focus on promoting better police image and public relations through community engagement and support and use the local knowledge and resources in partnership with the community police, relevant individuals and authority for effective deployment to ensure personal safety, secure and peaceful environment.”
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey