The Ghana Police will take delivery of three helicopters in November this year to enable the service to effectively execute its mandate of providing security to Ghanaian citizens.
They include two gazelle light attack helicopters and one Airbus 350 helicopter. Six pilot officers who would fly the aircrafts have completed their training in South Africa.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo disclosed this at the 50th Cadet Officers’ Graduation Parade at the Police Academy in Accra, where 129 officers were appointed into the senior officer corps of the Service.
The cadets are the first batch of the Service’s maiden nine-month course with a curriculum tailored to international standards and best practices in policing.
Cadets pursue more academic work now than in the previous six months course.
Those who pass the academic component of the course are awarded a Post-Graduate Diploma Certificate in Security Studies.
President Akufo-Addo said the government was committed to resourcing the service and would provide it with adequate personnel and logistics.
He said the government recognised the difficulties and dangers confronting police personnel in the discharge of their duties and would do everything possible to resource them adequately.
President Akufo-Addo said, “since I came to office in January 2017, a total of 568 vehicles, including 15 operational buses, have been presented to the Service, a feat unprecedented in its history.”
The President disclosed that apart from the existing Formed Police Unit (FPU) in Accra, an additional 22 light armoured vehicles had been procured for the FPUs to be established in November in the Northern, Upper East and Ashanti Regions.
The FPUs, he indicated, would be established in the remaining regions.
“Two hundred motorbikes have also been distributed to members of the Community Policing unit to boost the presence of the Police in our communities,” the President stated.
Modern communication equipment and 4,500 fragmentation jackets had been procured and delivered to the Service to protect officers, and help ensure effective policing.
President Akufo-Addo said in 2017, there were 800 CCTV installations in the country for surveillance. “At the end of my first term, the figure had gone up to 6,500, and, by the end of the year, another 3,500 would have been added, making a total of almost 11,000 in the country.”
The President said the government had strengthened the cyber crime-fighting capabilities of the Service, through the setting up of a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Centre at the National Communications Authority (NCA).
He disclosed that the Ministry of the Interior had procured three Alligator Silver boats to expand and resource the Marine Police to help them work with the Ghana Navy to protect the country’s maritime waters and its offshore oil and gas installations.
President Akufo-Addo also said that for the first time in the history of the Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police Service, crime officers are being given a monthly allowance to support their investigations.
On accommodation, he said the construction of 320 housing units at the National Police Training School was at an advanced stage of completion. “Work is ongoing on the construction of a barracks at Kwabenya, to replace the one adjacent to the DVLA at 37, which is not fit for purpose.
Again, a new mechanical workshop for the Service is also being constructed at Bohye, near Haatso.
President Akufo-Addo said in addition to the yearly increments of salaries for all police personnel, the government had placed the service, like the other members of the security services, under the CAP 30 pension scheme.
“Clearance has been given for the Police Service to recruit some 5,000 more personnel to augment the manpower base of the Service, in a bid to meet the recommended UN police-civilian ratio of one-to-five hundred people,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo commended the acting Inspector General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare, for his sterling leadership so far and assured him of the government’s support.
He said the acting IGP “has, so far, vindicated my decision to repose trust in him to hold this high office and I am confident that, once the necessary processes are completed, which I am sure will be soon, he will become our nation’s 23rd Inspector General of Police.”
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
