Accra, May 19, GNA - Government has provided adequate funds in the 2010 fiscal year for the completion of all police abandoned projects across the country, Vice President John Dramani Mahama announced in Accra on Wednesday.

"Government is also setting up a modern DNA and fingerprinting database for the police service."

The Vice President announced this when he launched the five-year strategic National Policing plan.

The strategic plan would among other things set up the direction and targets for the Ghana Police Service institutionalize the culture of democratic and non-coercive policing and to provide key stakeholders with useful information that would empower the police to perform their duties creditably.

Vice President Mahama said government had embarked on the construction of a new forensic and ballistic laboratory for the police, while Egyptian communications firm is supporting the service with modern communication facilities and vehicles to improve on their performance. He gave the assurance that government would continue to support the service to recruit more personnel and inculcate the spirit of patriotism and other positive qualities in the rank and file of the personnel. "Internationally, the average police-population ratio is 1:500, but in Ghana, the ratio is 1:1,200 and this means that one Ghanaian police officer who is already disadvantaged in terms of logistics does the work of at least two or three police officers."

Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye Inspector General of Police said provision of security was a collective responsibility of every Ghanaian and should not be relegated to only the service. "Many people were of the wrong understanding that security provision was the sole preserve of the police service and other agencies, fortunately after considerable public education and interaction, people are gradually waking up."

He promised to organise fundraising programmes to supplement government's budgetary allocation for the service towards the implementation of the strategic plan. Mr. Kwasi Akyem Appiah-Kubi, Deputy Minister of Interior said his outfit would closely monitor the implementation of the plan to ensure that it was effectively executed to ameliorate the service from its current predicaments.

He appealed to all stakeholders in the country's security activities to partner the police service to reduce crime, brutalities and other forms of abuses. GNA