Police on University campuses: Public universities are the most populated learning institutions in the country. With such numbers comes the great demands of wellbeing and safety of the community members and properties.
The Police administration will shortly launch the “Police visibility and undercover” initiative to enhance security in public universities across the nation, according to Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. George Akuffo Dampare.
He stated that in order for academic work to advance on the various campuses, the Police were closely collaborating with the administrations of the public universities to carry out the program to enhance security, foster social cohesion, and deepen peace.
During one of his two-day working visits to the Bono Region, the IGP gave this speech to the professors, deans, department heads, and students at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani.
Dr. Dampare stated that his administration would provide and attach the university with five Police dispatch riders next week to help maintain law and order on campus. He also stated that the Police were working hard to instill in personnel a high sense of patriotism in addressing national security challenges and threats. “We are going to set up a system to detect all the different paths into the institution and increase enough visibility for the Police, including the intelligence component of security,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor of UENR, Professor Elvis Asare-Bediako, praised the IGP for helping the institution construct a Police presence on campus. He claimed that this had significantly reduced the crime wave within the university community: “Now, we have a joint Police and UENR Security Patrol squad that scour about the campus and other dangerous areas enclave.”
Prof. Asare-Bediako expressed his optimism for the improvement of security by solidifying the goodwill connection between the Police and the institution.
The Director-General of the Police Patrols Department, Commissioner of Police (COP) Paul Manly Awuni, remarked that the police would only be appreciated if staff maintained professionalism and counseled the students to do the same. Prior to it, the IGP paid a courtesy call and spoke with the employees of the Bono Regional Coordinating Council and the members of the Sunyani Traditional Council.