Government re-tools security services

Government has since 2009 done a lot through retooling to improve the performance of the security services, Mr Felix Kwakye- Ofosu, a Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, said on Tuesday.

He said while government had increased the numbers of the services, conscious efforts were also being made to provide equipment and other logistics.

Mr Kwakye-Ofosu, who spoke during the daily media briefings at the Flagstaff House, said the government was bent on providing adequate resources for the services to carry out their mandate.

The Deputy Minister said the Ghana Police Service had the number of vehicles increased from 547 in 2009 to 1,424, while the gap between the police/citizen ratio had also been closed.

He said since 2010, the police/citizen ratio had moved from one policeman to 1,100 to one policeman to 784, a situation he added was closing up towards the United Nations standards of one policeman to 500 citizens.

Mr Kwakye-Ofosu said the police personnel had also been increased from over 23,000 to over 30,000, and this enabled the police administration to set up camps at various vantage points in the country.

He said the government had also established the marine police with a number of speed boats to ward off any maritime crime in the coastal areas of the country, while expansion programmes were being carried out at the Police Hospital.

On the Ghana National Fire Service, the Deputy Minister said the fleet of fire tenders had also increased to 152 and 80 more are expected.

He said while the Ghana Immigration Service had taken delivery of modern surveillance equipment in 15 out of the 17 major borders in the country, the Ghana Armed Forces had also received a number of equipment that had enhance their performance on land, sea and in the air.

Source: GNA