The Tema Police Command as are the rest of their compatriots in civvies, is unsurprisingly disturbed by the recent spilling of blood by criminals in the port city.
While we share in its predicament and the bereaved families’ we think that the growing instance of blood curdling is threatening the security of the whole country.
It would not be fair to lay the blame on the law enforcement agents alone while the citizens do not support them with necessary information about the movement of suspicious elements in the areas we live.
Criminals do not live on Mars but among us in the communities and their movements where necessary, must be communicated to the law enforcement agents. Unfortunately, the attitude of “mind your own business” appears to have germinated beyond reversal among us.
For the umpteenth time we shall ask that the Police Administration finds a more effective means of winning the support of Ghanaians so that they can effortlessly report movements of suspicious elements within their neighbourhoods and elsewhere. Many of such persons do not think that their confidentiality can be kept by the law enforcement agents when they deal with them in that direction.
The repercussions of a leakage of such security information to the criminals can most likely lead to death. We might not have reached the Mexican murder statistics, but the growing incidence of bloodletting sometimes in the mould of contract killing, must be stemmed now before it reaches another rung.
While we appreciate the advantages of the Police Visibility module at vantage points, it is our take that there is still more work to be done to outwit the criminals who as we all know, work hard to stay a step ahead of all of us, especially the law enforcement agents.
Accra and Kumasi still have many unresolved murders. It is our prayer that the conundrum which appears to have enveloped these, would give way to the arrests of the suspects. Until such suspects were apprehended and prosecuted accordingly, they would continue to pose a threat to society and indeed serve as sources of encouragement for others.
We are aware about how the power outages have provided the important impetus for such criminals to undertake their nightly missions and ask that government considers this reality and expedite action on restoring the status quo.
It is important also that the law enforcement agents consider the role of motorbikes in some of the recent murders so they can devise appropriate responses targeting such riders, especially at night.
While it would be almost impossible to stop the use of such vehicles at night, we think that some measures can be adopted, especially in Accra and Tema, to hinder the ease with which they manouvre at night.
When law enforcement agents and law-abiding Ghanaians join hands in a spirit of mutual respect and confidence, we have no doubt in our minds that the incidence of such callous murders can be reduced significantly.