Police Public Relations Officer DSP Freeman Tettey and criminologist Prof. Ken Attafuah have agreed that a police-community partnership is key to fighting armed robbery, but the two offered diverging evaluations of police performance.Tettey stressed the need for communities to cooperate with police by providing them with information, conducting neighborhood watches, and pursuing other strategies designed by police to suit particular neighborhoods. He said that the related strategy of relying on long-term informants for leads on criminals and criminal operations has also delivered significant results.The problem, according to Tettey, is that many citizens are unaware of community policing initiatives as well as the emergency police phone lines through which they can report crimes.Prof. Attafuah commended the police on recognizing the value of community policing, an approach he called the future of law enforcement, and said that he hopes to see the program expanded. Of the crimes that police do manage to solve, he said, most are solved with the aid of the citizenry.To improve results further, he suggested educating the population on the importance of community involvement and to convince certain officers that community based strategies have longer lasting effects than sporadic arrests made without intelligence.To achieve a “holistic approach” to fighting armed robbery, Attafuah proposed dealing with vacant lots and incomplete buildings, where criminals often squat, and improving witness protection so that people can testify without intimidation.He added that improvements to the national ID system could enhance the identification of suspects and that improving the economy and education system would reduce crime in the long run because most violent criminals turn to crime out of hopelessness.In contrast to Tettey’s confidence that the police are in control and that the citizenry has faith in their ability to protect life and property, Prof. Attafuah contended that crime rates may be rising and that police statistics cannot be trusted.He attributed this unreliability to the fact that police statistics are routinely doctored for purposes of building confidence in the police and minimising alarm and to the fact that a public lack of faith in the police leads to an underreporting of crimes.Callers confirmed the lack of faith, with one robbery victim saying that an officer’s callous aloofness at the time that she reported her ordeal discouraged her from seeking police assistance in the future.Tettey assured listeners that the police department is equipped to field and investigate complaints of police misconduct and that each complaint contributes incrementally to the betterment of the department.