The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Paul Tawiah Quaye, has indicated that the re-activation of the reward system has unfortunately triggered a multiplicity of informants with varied motives. According to him, some informants, from time immemorial, have played double-agent roles, and added that such people need to be handled with utmost care. The IGP has therefore advised police personnel to do thorough background checks on all informants, and not to over fraternize with them to the point where their professional integrity would be compromised. “If this happens, these same informants will leak details of planned police operations to criminals and destroy our operational efficiency and endanger the lives of officers involved”, he stressed. The IGP said this as he interacted with personnel of the Ghana Police Service in the Western Region during his maiden visit to the region last Thursday. He asked the personnel to carefully nurture their personal informants for purposes of establishing the informants’ credibility. “The use of informants is very vital to our work; we must therefore handle them with care and tactfulness, in that good informants are invaluable assets which when managed properly, can help us achieve some of our major objectives”, he added. Mr. Quaye asked arms and ammunition clerks in the various districts to be extra cautious and meticulous when registering new weapons or transferring ownership of old ones. “Due processes must be followed so as to ensure that persons with questionable characters are not licensed to possess firearms”, he noted. The IGP also instructed the Director General, Operations, and all Regional Commanders to undertake an inventory of service weapons in the armouries in order to reinforce the strict firearms accountability requirements. The IGP regretted that the structural and logistics base of the police service were not sufficient enough to enable them effectively discharge their statutory duties. He however indicated that the establishment of institutional networks, electronic data base, and the provision of essential inputs are receiving urgent attention. On the oil discovery issue, the IGP pointed out that records and experiences elsewhere should compel police personnel to be very circumspect and cautious. He said expatriate oil businessmen of various nationalities and with different cultures which are alien to the country’s traditions have started settling in communities in anticipation of business boom. Mr. Quaye intimated that there are bound to be cultural and moral conflicts with serious implications for law and order. He therefore called on the police officers to plan their operational activities to cover a wide spectrum of relevant areas of crime so that they would not be found wanting when the drilling of the oil starts. The IGP commended the Western Regional Police Command for their hard work in spite of the overwhelming operational challenges they are confronted with. The Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Hamidu Mahama, called for special training programmes for personnel in the region to prepare them to effectively deal with the anticipated crime-prone environment that will confront them. Source: Daily Guide