IGP says police intend to introduce virtual Police Station

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. George Akufo Dampare has indicated that the Police Service has plans to introduce a virtual Police Station. 

“We are looking forward to a period where we will have a virtual police station. Where you don’t have to show up at the police station, you just make your complaint virtually, and then we will send you all the information. And we can even virtually also invite the suspect to put his case across.

“And we evaluate and think that it is something that we can virtually do, then it’s a win-win for everybody than to show up at the police station for hours unattended to and all that,” he said.

He spoke on Thursday, August 11, 2022, at a public lecture held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), on the theme, ‘The Changing Phases of Policing in Ghana: The Expectations and Role of the University Community.’

In the meantime, he says the organization has instituted measures for a paperless working environment. 

“Internally with a press of a button, the IGP can send messages to every police officer across the country instantly. And we are also working where now we have virtually a sufficient level of a paperless environment. From headquarters to the regional level we send documents electronically that we need not to find people to come pick it up and do that.”

The Police Chief again used the opportunity to react to recent surveys that the Police Service was the most corrupt institution.

The Ghana Statistical Service, its partners, and CDD's Afrobarometer surveys released last month hand ranked the Ghana Police Service as the most corrupt institution. 

However, speaking during the lecture, Mr. Dampare said: “We have never said that there are not a couple of people who are doing things in a corrupt way tarnishing the image of the service. We are doing all that we can to handle it but we will never accept the tag that we are the most corrupt institution in the country.”