The Upper West Region is one of the most peaceful places in Ghana, recording not more than 12 armed robbery cases between January and August this year, a marginal increase over the previous year, The Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Kofi Danso Addei Acheampong has said. He said most of these robbery cases usually occur along the Wa-Bamboi road which falls outside the jurisdiction of the Upper West Regional police command. ACP Acheampong said the region has not been spared when it comes to road accidents even though it is the least among regions with high vehicular population. He said motor bikes which constituted the major means of transportation in the region is the major cause of road accident especially among students of the University for Development Studies. He explained that most of the students acquire motorbikes and use them without learning the rules and regulations governing the use of motorbikes. To forestall this, ACP Acheampong said the police are putting in place corrective measures to reduce accidents involving students. He said there had also been regular meetings with drivers of various transport unions to educate them on road safety and defensive driving. The police in the region have been under severe logistical and personnel constraint for some time now and the situation if not checked may affect police operations in the region. ACP Acheampong at the media briefing expressed worry over the manning of police stations by corporals and Sergeants in the region, describing it as a major setback in their operations in the Upper West Region. He said due to the lack of adequate police personnel and chief inspectors in the region, most police stations are manned by junior officers against the regulations and laid down procedures of the Ghana Police Service. He said the various operational units in Nadowli, Funsi and Tumu Districts have no substantive officers, due to lack of Chief Inspectors and Inspectors in the region, and so most of the stations are manned by sergeants and corporals. Wellembelle, Babile and Busie Stations for example, he said, are manned by sergeants whilst Wechiau, Hamile, Hain and Nandom Stations are controlled by corporals. ACP Acheampong said under the police service regulations, all police stations are supposed to be manned by inspectors and Chief Inspectors, however, the situation in the Upper West is nothing to write home about, adding that most of these people lacked the competencies to take informed decisions in their daily operational duties. He said the greatest challenge that confronts the regional police command is the staff strength of its personnel which currently stands at 469 for the entire region which also has additional responsibilities over the Western Corridor of the Northern region. ACP Acheampong said this is awfully inadequate to effectively police the entire region of an estimated population of 688,101 and a land mass of 18,476 square kilometers. He said this gives the police to population ratio in the region as 1:1,467 which is far lower than approved ratio prescribed by the United Nations and also the national ratio which also stands at 1:1007. He said nearly all the police vehicles for operations in the region are broken down and the most worrying aspect is the fact that in some situations vehicle that are taken to Accra for repairs break down again before they get to Wa. In spite of these constraints personnel in the region have been working hard to maintain law and order to ensure peace for everybody in the region, he said.