The Ghana Police Service has announced that it is set to go paperless and digital while putting an end to the era where caution statements of suspects at the police station are written on sheets of paper.
According to the police, the world has changed significantly with the emergence of technology, so there is the need to adopt strategic ways to fight crime.
Speaking at a workshop on ‘Effective Investigation Techniques’ for some 175 crime officers across the country in Accra, the Acting Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), DCOP Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Dankwah, said the police ought to change its ways to fit into the modern ways of doing things.
“It is for this reason that the police Administration, as part of the transformation agenda, is set to commence e-policing pilot in 26 police stations within Accra and Tema. This means that we shall be using electronic means to take complaints, write statements, verify fingerprints, and all entries in CID shall be digital beginning with the 26 pilot police stations in Accra and Tema, and the CID Headquarters,†DCOP Addo-Dankwah said.
She added that there was a steady movement toward a complete digitization of criminal investigations in the country which means that when the programme is finally rolled out, the Inspector General of Police, and the Director-General, CID could access any complaint or docket, how the case is being investigated and could also give directives on dockets using electronic means.
DCOP Addo-Dankwah said training had already been conducted for personnel from the 26 police stations and CID headquarters earmarked for the pilot. There is, therefore, the need for the crime officers to brace up to meet the challenges that come with the introduction of technology in criminal investigations.
“As the Police Administration does its best to organize courses to empower you, I also urge you to add value to yourselves by reading more on new developments in criminal investigations. This workshop is not only the first of its kind in the year 2017, but also the first phase of series of workshops, seminars and training programmes outlined to ensure that crime officers are equipped with relevant skills and competencies in modern investigative techniques to enable them to perform their investigative functions in line with the vision of the Ghana Police Service, which is to become a world-class police,†she stated.
The workshop is also designed to equip participants with modern best practices in criminal investigations to better place them ahead of any challenge.
DCOP Addo-Dankwah further revealed that already, “all CID forms have been digitized: the Automated Fingerprint Identification System has been re-equipped with new equipment installed and fingerprints from 1957 have already been captured digitally and stored.
She further said an FBI-certified equipment has been procured for use by the Criminal Data Services Bureau at CID headquarters. This means that Fingerprint Analysis, Employment, and Verification Reports would be done digitally according to international standards.
“In order to give you a glimpse of how the future would look like, we have invited the transformation team to demonstrate to officers the digitized processes in criminal investigations at this workshop.â€
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