Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has handed over $2 million worth of mobile identification devices and a Mobile Device Management System to the Ghana Police Service.
They were donated by the Margins Group, an indigenous Ghanaian Identity Systems Company.
The software, accessible on mobile phones would help police officers identify those on their wanted list, Ghana Card holders, registered and unregistered vehicles, insured or uninsured, among others.
The devices are linked to the National Identification Authority (NIA) database.
‘’If you’re going to benefit from digitalisation, you cannot allow the system that you’re setting up to sit in silos, Bawumia said.
“You have to integrate the systems so that you can benefit from knowing if you’re in a crime database and you integrate it with the national ID database, you can tell when you meet somebody who is on the crime database that this person is either a criminal or someone who is wanted.
“So the issue of integration of the police database with the NIA database is very important. With these devices (mobile device software) it is very important that when the Police meet you on the street they can tell who you are with or without your Ghana card.
“They can tell if you’re wanted or not. They can tell whether the vehicle you’re driving is registered or not because you’re linking the databases. So it is a valuable weapon in the fight against crime and the protection of the public and the safety of the public.”
The Vice President who has been spearheading government’s digitalisation drive described the donation as the beginning.
“We are going to see more and more devices in the hands of police officers across the country so that policing will be very effective.
“This is something that Ghana and Service will be proud of because we’re moving into an area where in fact many advanced countries are still trying to get into that area.”