The gruesome murder of General Constable Emmanuel Osei by armed bandits in Accra on Monday, this week, has once again raised serious questions about the safety of policemen and women who are protecting us. A few years ago, the target was the police on guard duties at the banks. A number of our gallant police personnel were cruelly murdered when armed robbers struck at the premises they were protecting.
In those days, The Chronicle wrote several editorials advising the police hierarchy to review the way the police on guard duties are positioned. In our view, asking the cop to sit in what we considered to be cages, in front of the banks, amounted to nothing but the writing of their death warrants.
We had argued that men and women in the black uniforms should be positioned in the premises of the banks, such that they cannot be seen by customers or criminals. Our reason for this advice was that, asking armed security guards to sit in front of the banks exposes them to easy attacks. It is important to note that a security person on duty cannot cork his or her gun throughout the period he spends at the bank. In view of this, he or she would become defenceless when all of a sudden he is attacked by armed criminals.
However, when the armed security person is in a hidden place, inside the bank, he can come forward well prepared to face the gun men who have attacked the bank. We put forward all these suggestions but nothing good came out of it. We only heard from the grapevine about an alleged claim by the police that when their men are stationed in front of the banks, it scares away those who have the intention to attack.
Now a new trend is emerging – attacking bullion vans with police escort. In the Monday’s incident we are referencing, the first target of the robbers was the police escort. We sincerely believe the late Emmanuel Osei did not know that somebody was going to open fire on him, otherwise he would have prepared himself to face them.
Trend analysis will prove that when the armed robbers started attacking the banks, it took a long time before the situation was curtailed. One can, therefore, conclude that the killing of Emmanuel Osei in the bullion van will not be the first and last – the robbers are likely going to continue on that trajectory for some time. The Police administration must, therefore, devise a strategy to counter the anticipated attacks on the police guards.
The Chronicle is aware that the IGP, James Oppong Boanuh and his team, have already met the Bank of Ghana and other industry players, with the view of acquiring armoured vehicles for the same exercise Emmanuel Osei was executing before he was shot. But whilst detailed discussions are ongoing, The Chronicle is making a few suggestions to the IGP for a possible implementation before the armoured vehicles arrive.
In our view, instead of asking the cops to sit in front of the bullion vans and become an easy target for these armed robbers, we suggest they be made to drive in an ordinary car wearing mufti and following the bullion van from a distant. In this way, when the armed robbers attack, they will be in better position to open fire to repel them. We insist that the cops sitting in front of the bullion van with the aim of scaring would-be robbers away is no more tenable. At least what happened to Emmanuel Osei at James Town justifies our position that this archaic method of providing security must be discarded.
When a bullion van is in traffic without a cop sitting in front, nobody will take notice of armed guard following it. The armed robbers themselves will think twice before making any attempt to attack, because they will not know which of the cars following it have armed men on board.
Also, apart from the AK47 assault rifles that these cops will be wielding, they must, as well, be provided with side arms. We are not security experts, but in our opinion, it will take some time for the cops to cork their guns and fire especially in a crowded area. However, when they have side arms, they can easily pull it out to defend themselves or the target of attack. In addition to this, every police man or woman going on outside duties must have body cameras to record crime scenes.
We are in a modern world so we need to adopt modern strategies when it comes to the provision of security. The armed robbers who shot and killed Emmanuel Osei, which has broken the hearts of many Ghanaians, could have easily been tracked and arrested if the fallen cop had body camera on him. We shall surely return to this subject in our subsequent publications.
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