The leadership of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has warned it will punish officers who cause the Service to wrongfully pursue suspects as a result of inaccurate information.

According to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor such behavior has affected the ability of the Service to effectively prosecute cases in court.  It has also brought the name of the Service into disrepute, he added.

The IGP was speaking before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on April 19 where he was answering questions relating to some violations of the Service captured in the Auditor-General’s report for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

According to the report, in 2011 the Police administration was misinformed by the Osino Police Station on crime cases in the District. The data provided to the administration was found to be at variance with the actual figures recorded in the District.

Addressing the issue, Mr. Kudalor said: “The police administration deemed it as a very serious infraction on the part of the station officer. And the administration has taken a very serious note of this”.

He said by way of preventing a repeat in the future, the Service has directed all police officers across the country to “Check with the relevant Service documents and records before submitting data to the center [Criminal Investigation Department data Center]”.

He also said training programs have been initiated to educate the officers on how to report crime statistics in their districts.

“I can vouch that the situation has tremendously improved and we have asked the appropriate departments [especially] the CID to ensure that they do regular checks to get the right information because this can bring a lot of wrongful actions by the center”, he said.

When asked if the Osino police officer who misinformed the Service had been punished, Mr. Kudalor said he will revisit his documents to find out.

He assured the Committee he will apply the appropriate sanction if he finds out the police officer was not punished.

“This infraction act don’t die. We can resurrect it and let him face the appropriate sanction”, he said.