What can we do about theft, robbery?

This is personal.  I don’t know whether police statistics indicate this but it is a well-known fact that thefts and robberies increase in the last quarter of the year.  

Most of these go unreported and of those that reach the police, only a tiny fraction will be resolved by the nation’s crime fighting force. I have been robbed twice in the last five weeks so I am speaking from painful experiences.

A thief or thieves came to my house in early November and managed to steal a number of items including my laptop, camera and watch. Most painfully, they also stole two external backup drives which were not kept together with the laptop. 

This means that in one swoop, these miscreants have wiped a substantial part of not just my work, but my memory system. There is nothing in my power or means I would not give to recover some important folders on my laptop. But that has gone, or perhaps not.

I have become wiser after the theft, especially because I have refused such good advice that would be useful before the events. 

For example, the best advice I have received concerning the first theft was a simple one: you should have had the galaxy tab in your hands and not in a bag hanging by your side, especially in a crowd. 

This makes sense. The tab was stolen at Akropong during the Odwira Festival in broad daylight in the middle of a crowd. A young man distracted me on my right side while another person – unseen on my left side, dipped his or her hand into my bag and disappeared with the tab.

As for the laptop and other stuff, the thief or thieves after failing to remove the burglar proof bars on one window managed to shift the window glass to one side and made a cut through the mosquito net. 

How they managed then to drag the stolen items must be their professional secret. What it tells us is that, most of what we think can protect us is mere decoration. We need to seek professional advice in these matters.

The question is, where do we go for such advice? One thing lacking in this country is a system of free professional citizens advice centres where one can go for advice on everything from finances to health, safety and security. 

Even government ministries and departments that have been set up to do these things are unable or unwilling to do them. 

Let us take the police, who are the first line of call in such matters. Buy the way, this is the second time I have been robbed in this very fashion so I knew the drill on what to do and what to avoid. 

To cut a long story short, I went to a police station to make a complaint about the robbery. The officer on duty was courteous and efficient. He took my statement and dispatched me to see an investigator in the Crime Room.

When I was young, the expression “CID”, (which stands for Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service), was a dreaded term. It stood for snoopy, duplicitous, underhand and sneaky. Good people avoided CID-like Ebola. The main reason for this was, of course, they worked behind the scenes as police without uniform. The crime office to which I was sent can be straight from a severely typecast film. 

There were all kinds of people there and they all looked like us, - me and you. They would look different in uniform but in their mufti, they would blend into the crowd, which is what is required. Every now and then a complainant would come in and tell his or her story. Mostly, like me, they had been robbed.

The first thing that strikes the stranger to the CID office is the fact that for a modern office, it lacks any accoutrement of up-to-date administration. There were no files, no book shelves and definitely no computers. I was given a sheet of paper to write my statement, which is done by long hand. I am not sure where it is filed but if it is filed at all, retrieving it could be a problem.

None of this is the fault of the police personnel. My crime officer, a young woman, is diligent, intelligent and enthusiastic about her work. She and another colleague went home with me, and immediately gave me good advice about how to place the furniture in the living room in a way that would not aid thieves and robbers. 

It was good advice, but what we needed at that point was to catch the thief or thieves and possibly retrieve the stolen items.

Unfortunately, to do so would require resources beyond the reach of the CID. For example, there is no transport available for crime officers to visit the homes of robbery victims. The victim has to bear the cost of transporting the officers. If the victim is not able to do so, I guess that would be the end of the investigation. 

As part of the investigation, a forensic person was assigned to do fingerprinting in my house. There was no official vehicle for her to do the job. I must commend her too for her enthusiasm and willingness to go beyond the call of duty. But what happens to the fingerprints she was able to dust and carry with her? I don’t have the foggiest idea. So the police may do their best but even that hardly assures one of success.

Meanwhile, I am part of a frightening statistic. According to official reports, a total of 78,509 criminal cases were recorded in Accra in 2013. 

Stealing, robbery and threat to life accounted for more than half of the incidents. 

This figure was said to represent a decline in the crime rate over the previous year, although one knows from anecdotal evidence that the official statistic is a tiny drop in the ocean of crime that sweeps over our capital city every year. 

Most crimes go unreported, especially those that do not claim heavy human casualties. For example, since the robbery at my house, we have had about six other incidents in nearby houses, and I know that most of them were not reported. 

There are many places in Ghana where going to the police, for whatever reason, is not an option. Indeed, most parts of the Spintex Road in Accra are not served directly by any police station.

The truth is that, in crime as in almost all other spheres of life, we have become a do-it-yourself (DIY) nation; you have to supply your own electricity, water, security and everything else. As the saying goes, each one for him/herself and God for us all. 

And God has been invoked in this matter of robbery more than any solution. We have prayed and continue to pray; indeed more muscular prayers and spiritual interventions have been advised.

The one intervention no one REALLY advises is going to the police. It is neither the fault of the police nor the sceptics. Just bolt everything to the floor or walls, pray hard and hope for the best.