The major crime indices throughout the country show that crime has reduced considerably this year compared to the previous year. A total of 1,054 robbery cases were recorded between January and September 2009, compared to 1,150 cases for the same period last year, showing a decrease of 96 cases over the period. Fifty two lives were lost through armed robbery within the period under review. Out of the number 22, including two policemen, were innocent victims, while the remaining 30 were suspected armed robbers. Narcotics cases involving cocaine, heroine and marijuana reduced from 567 to 508, while murder cases also reduced from332 to 321. The Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, DCOP Frank Adu-Poku, briefing the press in Accra Tuesday, said intelligence reports showed that most of the victims of armed robbery who were killed were suspected to be persons who resisted or were known by the robbers. He said six of the victims were also raped by the armed robbers. He said 220 suspected criminals had so far been arrested, adding that reports gathered over the period indicated that abbut:93 per cent of the perpetrators of that heinous were male adults between the ages of 20 and 32, with minors and females occasionally involved. DCOP Adu-Poku said the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions maintained their positions as the hub of criminal activities, especially armed robbery, throughout the country. He said statistics revealed a significant reduction in robbery in all the regions except Greater Accra, Central and Volta, adding that approximately five robbery cases were recorded on a daily basis nation-wide within the period under consideration. The director general said in recent times armed robbery had assumed a new dimension, inc1udingthe trailing of bullion vans on special duties, persons who cashed huge sums of money from the banks and visitors or people who arrived at the Kotoka International Airport. DCOP Adu-Poku said there had been instances when the robbers mustered courage to rob three or more houses within the same vicinity in a single operation, explaining that in order to conceal their movements, they resorted to “chain-robbery", whereby two or more vehicles were snatched and abandoned in succession. He said the period also experienced a gruesome highway robbery incident in which the criminals ordered the victims to lie in the middle of the Nyame Bekyere-Bechem main road in the Ashanti Region and the victims eventually ran over by a Nissan pick-up, killing two of them, while 16 others sustained serious injuries. He assured the public that the Police Administration would do all it could to protect them from the nefarious activities of criminals, adding that with the support and co-operation of the public the police had already started chalking up some successes. Source: Daily Graphic