KOFORIDUA, capital of the New Juaben Municipality, which is also the Eastern Regional capital, has over the years been noted for its unique serene environment.
The town, surrounded by Obuotabire Mountains covered with lush green vegetation, has a number of sight-seeing facilities such as hotels, restaurants and many others, making it a favourable place for workers and tourists.
Covering an estimated area of 110 square kilometres and constituting 0.57 per cent of the total land area of the region, the relative proximity of Koforidua to Accra and other tourist sites in the region such as the Boti Falls, the Akosombo Dam, the Dodi Island, the Aburi Botanical Gardens and the Adomi Bridge,have all made the town gained a status for relaxation during the weekends and on holidays.
With a cluster of walking distance suburbs, the town has over the years also become a second home for countless holiday makers, both local and foreign.
First to attain a municipal status in the region, Koforidua, with a heterogeneous population of 96,266, mainly Ashantis, has become a vibrant commercial centre that had been peaceful for many decades.
However, within the last few years the well-known hospitable municipality has seen an upsurge in crime rates as it has become a prime target for criminals, mostly armed robbers.
Not long ago, some residents in the area, mostly at Kenkey Factory, Water Works, Old Estate SNIT Flats, Adweso, St James and others began living in constant fear following a series of attacks by armed robbers on some of the households in those areas.
The armed robbers, who usually announce their presence with several gunshots to instil fear in their victims, often brutally assault and sometimes rape innocent young girls and mothers.
One clear robbery case was in September, last year, when two households at Water Works were attacked by a seven-member armed robbery gang who did not only deprive their victims of their money and personal belongings but also subjected them to torture, threatened to rape some of the women and girls and set some of their belongings on fire in the sitting rooms after they had locked up the families in the bathrooms.
Members of a nearby household who considered themselves safe due to heavy metal gates on all the major entrances to the house, however, suffered a more brutal assault after the robbers had spent over one hour to break down the metal gate and the wooden door to the main hall with cement blocks, hacksaw blade and a chisel.
Having a field day, the robbers who did not appreciate the efforts made by their victims to be co-operative, allegedly used the butt of an AK47 assault rifle to hit the head of one Mr Sarpong, a retired teacher, before hitting his chest with a hammer. This was after the criminals traumatised him, his wife and children.
All that while, the households had made an SOS call to the police to come to their aid. However, the police were reported to have arrived at the scene after the robbers had successfully carried out their mission and bolted with their booties.
This robbery and many similar incidents that took place in the municipality somehow could have been averted had there been adequate physical police presence and patrols in the area, according some of the victims of the robberies.
It was strongly believed that the best strategy for tackling crime was one that focused on preventing crime and tackling the root causes and not just the symptoms.
The question now is can more physical police presence in all the communities in the municipality lead to a significant reduction in crime rate in the area?
Criminology evidence strongly suggested that fear of being detected in the act of a crime was the strongest deterrent to potential criminals, not the fear of being caught.
It is part of this effective preventive measure to combat armed robbery and other crimes in the area that the Eastern Regional Police Command instituted a new innovative Police Patrol System two weeks ago code named the “Tent Cities”.
Under the programme, the municipality has been zoned into six strategic areas, namely Mile 50, Oyoko Roundabout, Asokore Community Health Centre, Nkurakan and Pentuwala, where tents have been placed at vantage points manned by well armed police personnel numbering between 22 and 40 per each tent with a standby communication centres and police vehicles to attend to emergency calls from the members of the public.
Under the initiative, a brainchild of the new Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Stephen Andoh-Kwofie, police personnel would be deployed to patrol the streets and the neighbourhoods in pairs from 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. each day to make their physical presence more felt.
Additionally, rapid response standby combat ready police teams are located at the Regional Police Headquarters and the New Juaben Municipal Police Station to provide the necessary reinforcement in the wake of any eventuality.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, DCOP Andoh-Kwofie, said since crime prevention or detection was less costly and more effective than crime combat, the Police Command decided to make the physical police presence more felt in the neighbourhoods in the municipality.
“More police action, especially our presence, is needed to effectively prevent crime, rather than just dealing with crimes once they are committed.This is a more effective way to significantly reduce crime in the municipality”, DCOP Andoh-Kwofie explained.
Under the initiative, the police will also undertake frequent swoops on ghettos that harbour criminals.
Besides the tent cities, DCOP Andoh-Kwofie stated that additional police patrols and temporary snap checks had also been intensified on the roads to deter criminals, adding “we need not maintain one permanent security check point on our roads in order to outwit criminals”.
It is indeed reassuring that the Regional Police Command is going all out to check crime to make the municipality safe to enable the people to go about their activities without fear or intimidation.
If this exercise is to succeed, and not be a nine day wonder, there was the need for the police and other security agencies to be well resourced and motivated to enable them discharge their duties more professionally.
This required industries, businesses and well-to-do individuals in the municipality to generously assist the New Juaben Municipal Assembly to provide the security with the necessary logistics, since no individual or business entity is immune to crime.
The idea of deploying more police personnel to patrol our neighbourhood is an igneous one and worthy of praise. This would definitely help keep criminals at bay thereby, creating a sense of security and allay the fears and boost confidence among the people.
Besides, the mere physical presence of the police would also instil discipline in errant drivers on the roads
As members of the public, whose welfare and safety are utmost to the police, residents need to cooperate fully with them to make the new police patrol system a real success. Without such public cooperation, all their efforts will be in vain, since the security in the municipality is not the sole responsibility of the police but a shared one.
Furthermore, members of the public are obliged to inform themselves about the names of their streets and house numbers since that would enable them to provide the police accurate information during any eventuality.
We hope that these preventive actions of the police and other agencies would become a standard practice throughout the year until a time when the residents of the municipality would feel a strong sense of security.
Besides, more than ever before, it time residents of the municipality recognised the need to embrace the neighbourhood watchdog concept and other community initiatives that required them to be the “eyes and hears of their communities” and see the need to look out for each other to be each other’s keeper.
They should recognise that helping to foster a strong sense of togetherness as one community would keep the communities in the municipality more vibrant, since active communities were more vigilant and less attractive to criminals.
Since the new police patrol system is an igneous one that is highly commendable, residents need to join hands with the police to effectively combat and if possible, wipe crime from our communities.
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