CID overwhelmed by cases

Page 59: Daily Graphic, May 24, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is overwhelmed by the number of cases reported to it.
Out of a total of 243,769 cases reported to the CID last year, more than 187,933 of them are still under investigations.
The inability of the CID to deal with the numerous cases had been attributed to the neglect in terms of training of its personnel to update their investigative skills.
Personnel of the CID had since late year started a retraining programme to sharpen their investigative skills.
The figure 243,769 represents a 1.6 per cent increase in the 239,823 cases reported in 2008.
Out of the cases reported in 2009, 8,322 were rejected for investigations while 16,462 cases were closed.
Crime statistics contained in the CID’s 2009 annual report indicated that 31,052 of the reported cases were sent to court resulting in 10,352 convictions, 1,115 acquitals while 19,585 cases were still awaiting trial.
The statistics indicated that assault cases topped the list of reported cases; stealing 89,407; threatening, 61,711; fraud, 24,959; causing damage, 18,906; causing harm, 10,944; defilement, 3,368; robbery,1,373; unlawful entry, 1387 and rape 447 cases.
Touching on major offences, the statistics indicated that there was a general decline in narcotic offences for 2009 as compared to 2008 with 679 cases in 2009 as against 714 cases in 2008 representing a decline of 4.9 per cent.
The number of murder cases for 2009 declined from 430 in 2008 to as 427 2008, rape from 485 in 2008 to 447 in 2009; defilement 1,675 to 1,604 in 2009 with robbery registering 1,373 in 2009 as against 1449 in 2008.
Among its achievements, the CID mentioned the arrest of five soldiers who kidnapped the Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, suspects who killed a pastor, a gang who usually trailed and robbed immigrants at the Kotoka International Airport, the arrest of fugitive Mathew Allen Osei and a French national, who tried to export pornographic materials of Ghanaian women and children.