Police advised against trivialising domestic violence
The Central Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Mr George Appiah-Sakyi, has advised his colleagues to not trivialise domestic violence cases.
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He said they should rather accord victims of such cases the needed support to enable them to seek justice and ensure that perpetrators of these crimes were brought to book.
Capacity building
Speaking at a capacity building workshop for 50 officers of DOVVSU, Mr Appiah-Sakyi said domestic violence issues were criminal issues that affected the victims physically, emotionally and psychologically and must be treated as such.
The workshop was sponsored by the United Nations Population (UNFPA), with support from the Central Regional Coordinating Council.
He noted that the increase in the reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence was an indication that more needed to be done to fight these crimes. He called on the media to educate the public on the activities of the unit and get more people to report such cases to DOVVSU.
Statistics
He also said over 3,000 cases were recorded by the unit in the region annually, indicating that since 2002, there had been a cumulative record of 25,000 cases reported to the unit, adding that the police in general, and the DOVVSU in particular, should not relent in their efforts to fight domestic violence.
The Central Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Mr Moses Ninson, said defilement cases recorded at the DOVVSU offices in the region increased from 191 in 2013 to 273 in 2014, while rape cases also increased from 38 to 56 over the same period.
He said the Police Service,therefore, welcomed the organisation of the workshop to strengthen the capacity of police personnel in the region in handling cases of sexual and gender-based and domestic violence.
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He added that domestic violence formed part of the criminal justice system and advised police personnel to work harder to help apprehend all criminals.