Ghana Police launch community safety programme in five cities

Inspector-General of Police Dr George Dampare on Wednesday launched the Community Safety Partnership Programme in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi and Cape Coast, connecting ten thousand trained neighbourhood watch volunteers with local police district commanders through a new mobile platform.nnThe app, developed jointly by the Police Service and Ghana Tech Hub, allows community volunteers to report incidents in real time, receive alerts about crimes in their areas, and request rapid response patrols. Volunteers will receive basic first aid and crime documentation training before deployment.nnDampare said rising urban crime, particularly armed robbery and phone snatching, had exposed the limits of conventional policing and required deeper community partnerships. “The police cannot be everywhere. But our communities are everywhere. This partnership bridges that gap,” he told journalists at the Police Headquarters in Accra.nnHuman rights advocates have generally praised the initiative but urged the Police Service to ensure that community volunteers do not exercise arrest powers or engage in vigilante activities. The guidelines circulated ahead of the launch explicitly prohibit volunteers from detaining suspects.nnThe programme will initially cover fifty police districts and will be evaluated after twelve months before a national rollout. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly has committed GH¢5 million to co-fund the programme’s operating costs in the capital.nnSimilar models have been successfully implemented in Kigali and Nairobi, where crime rates in participating neighbourhoods dropped by between fifteen and thirty percent within two years.