The Ghana Police Service on Saturday launched the establishment of the Community Policing Unit (CPU) in the Northern Region to provide a citizen-focused policing to meet the expectation of all communities.

The establishment of the CPU was in response to Ghana Police Service’s five-year Strategic National Policing Plan (2010 – 2014) to make the service professional and efficient.

Northern Region becomes the fifth region, after Accra, Tema, Upper East and Upper West, in which the CPU has been established and the Police Administration is determined to replicate the CPU in all regions of the country.

As part of the launch, a number of police personnel were selected from the districts in the region to undergo lectures on the concept and application of community policing, communication skills and public engagement amongst others, to equip them with skills to ensure effective community policing.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) George Tuffuor, Northern Regional Police Commander, who performed the launch at the Regional Police Headquarters in Tamale, assured that the Police Service would continue to operate within the confines of the law whiles upholding professionalism to rid society of miscreants.

DCOP Tuffuor stressed the need for improved communicative skills on the part of the selected personnel to inform their relationship with members of the public so as to create good rapport with the community members to enhance their work.

He asked the selected personnel to consider themselves as ambassadors of the Police Service, and to be diligent and decent to members of the communities to create a good image for the Service.

Chief Superintendent Alhaji Mohammed Fuseini Suraji, Director of CPU, told the selected personnel that “you are going to be the conduit through which sensitization on crime prevention and promotion of safer neighbourhoods will flow from your district command to communities, as well as intelligence gathered from communities to the district command for action”.

He entreated personnel to make success and hard work their guiding principles.**