The Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Rose Bio Atinga, has called on her men to take policing to the doorsteps of the masses. The police boss made the call at a staff durbar which brought together Divisional, District and Unit Commanders as well as Station and Crime Officers to deliberate on how to combat emerging crimes. Modern policing, according to the commander, is a shared responsibility which the police alone cannot bare. She therefore urged the police to visit their neighbourhoods often and educate the public on emerging crimes and what to do not to fall victim to criminals. She noted that the upward adjustment of police salary should be motivation enough for them to eschew disgraceful behaviours such as extortion and brutalities meted out to members of the public. She encouraged the police officers to be friendly to persons in their catchment areas since they may be helpful by volunteering information to the police, leading to the arrest of criminals. “You need to cultivate their friendship,” she noted. She reiterated that the current police administration would not tolerate any unscrupulous behaviour that would bring the name of the service into disrepute. She called on the public to report personnel that charge them various sums of money before releasing persons on bail and indicated that it was illegal and unconstitutional to take money from people before granting bail. DCOP Rose Bio Atinga advised drivers not expose their valuables in their vehicles. She disclosed that there is an equipment called bazooka which criminals lurking around various car parks in the city use to open car doors and make away with valuables. Superintendent Abigchab noted that good salary alone would not motivate personnel to give off their best. He stressed that logistics, training and retraining would be a boost for personnel motivation. He advised that logistics such as fuel should be made readily available to personnel since they sometimes use their own resources to fuel official vehicles. The Regional Commander however stressed that the current administration had done its bit, especially on training and retraining and was also working on getting enough logistics for the service. DCOP Rose Bio Atinga noted that the service has just acquired new cars for its operations and is expecting more. If the police put in more effort in combating crime, they would have the moral justification to even ask for more, she added. She however said if they kept being unfriendly and unprofessional even after the salary increment, the public would never forgive them. She called on taxi drivers to be weary of persons that hired their services to obscured and unlighted areas since they could be potential armed robbers. “Lately, they walk as couples; one would dress as a lady but is a man. They would later pounce on the driver and rob him of his vehicle and daily sales.” Source: Daily Guide