Ghana police told to stop parading suspects before media

A Senior State Attorney, Mrs. Marie-Louise Simmons, has called for the police to stop the practice of parading suspected criminals before the media cameras.
         
The practice, she noted, was not helpful, as people looking to settle personal scores could take advantage of.
         
She added that some members of the public would sometimes want to confirm crimes leveled against certain arrested suspects based purely on rumors they might have heard about such suspects.
         
She was speaking at a day’s workshop held for senior officers of the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in the Ashanti Region.
         
The goal was to build their capacity to efficiently investigate reported crimes to build strong case and secure court convictions.
         
Topics discussed included “who a criminal investigator is”, “crime scene investigations” “role of crime scene investigator” and “identification of suspects”.
         
The Senior State Attorney said it was important for the investigators to make sure that they did a thorough job so that no innocent person suffered punishment.
                  
Mrs. Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, a High Court Judge and facilitator of the capacity building workshop, asked to them to carry out proper crime scene investigations and gather enough evidence to prove their cases in court.
         
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Peter Baba Atiwiak, the Regional Crime Commander, said, the workshop was part of steps to sharpen the skills of the investigators.
         
They were eager to overcome any shortfalls to enable justice to be served in all cases.
         
He said with the growing sophisticated crimes – cybercrimes it was important they stayed ahead of the miscreants.
         
The participants raised concerns about inadequate logistics and personnel and asked that these were tackled.    

Source: GNA