Eu body donates to police

The Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (ARAP) programme under the European Union (EU) has presented a set of communication equipment worth €42,000 to the Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service.

The equipment were to strengthen the directorate to communicate effectively and efficiently with citizens, the media and civil society, and be accountable to Ghanaians across the country.

There were 11 heavy duty video cameras, Adobe premier pro (image and video software), a drone, eight canon 77D kit, five laptops, five monitors, microsoft office license and sling studio action pack, among others.

Handing over the equipment to the police, Mr Zoltan Agai, Counsellor Head of Cooperation of the European Union (EU), said the equipment were critical to ensuring that the service elevated its communication efforts to suit the challenges and opportunities of this day and age, including social media and online communication.

Technical assistance

He said the EU through the ARAP Programme had been supporting the police in three critical areas by providing a technical assistance to strengthen the GPS capacities for effective prosecution.

The counsellor said the EU had also focused on improving the professional standards and strengthening accountability of the service to Ghanian citizens and also supporting the Directorate of Public Affairs in strengthening its communication efforts to make the service more accountable to Ghanaians.

Equipping police

He said those efforts were geared towards equiping police personnel in the country with better staff management, ethics, and performance at field level to prevent misconduct and corruption.

He said the EU was proud to have supported the development and rollout of the public education and communication strategy of the Ghana Police Service, stressing that communication with citizens, the media and civil society was a critical pillar of democratic life and accountable intuitions.

Mr Agai asserted that informed and educated citizens could identify crimes and be a critical ally to ensure compliance with the rule of law and effective policing.

He gave an assurance that the ARAP would continue to work closely with different department and units of the Ghana Police Service.

Support to police

The Director General in Charge of Services, Commissioner of Police (COP) Amponsah Asiamah, who received the equipment on behalf of the police, expressed his appreciation to the ARAP for the continued assistance and support to the service.

He said since the launch of the police transformational agenda, the ARAP had been at the fore front to assist the police with equipment and technical support.

He said the presentation of the equipment for use by the Public Affairs Directorate would enable the police to effectively and efficiently communicate with members of the public to achieve a constitutional mandate.

The team leader of ARAP, Ms Ana Sarchet, said ARAP had been collaborating with the GPS since its inception and all its efforts were geared towards equipping the police officers across Ghana with better staff management, ethics and performance at the field level to prevent misconduct and corruption.