26/07/2023
The European NORPREVSEC programme trains Ghanaian security officers to improve police information sharing and prevent security threats in the north of the country
Training of Ghanaian security officers on the WAPIS tool
Training is being carried out in two regions of northern Ghana (Upper West and Upper East) to train security officers on the West African Police Information System (WAPIS), an electronic police information exchange system implemented by INTERPOL. Following the training, the aim is to link and train three of the five regions in the north of the country, thereby strengthening security in the area.
The training is being organised by the European NORPREVSEC project, with the aim of equipping and empowering security agencies with an effective, efficient and operational system to enable, through information sharing, the detection of radical elements that pose a threat to Ghana’s national security.
The situation in the northern border areas is becoming more radicalised, especially due to the role of social media, which is increasing propaganda activity and calls to destabilise Ghana. This is coupled with an increase in refugee migration flows from Burkina Faso and the creation of a refugee camp in Bolgatanga.
Furthermore, throughout the trainings, emphasis has been placed on the financing activities of criminal groups in the border areas, especially illegal mining, truck theft, fuel theft, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and above all the theft of cattle in neighbouring countries that are sold in northern Ghana. All these crimes are on the increase due to the lack of government presence in these areas to exercise real control.
Fingerprint databases, such as the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), have the potential to solve and link cases or identify a person. This potential can only be achieved if the database is fed with high quality data and the technical standards of the entire forensic chain are observed: from the enrolment of fingerprints to the collection of traces at the crime scene. However, to date, there is no certainty about the real identity of inmates in Ghanaian prisons, as there is no system for matching information with biometric data.
Establishing a database is the priority of the Ghanaian Ministry of National Security and all Ghanaian security agencies for effective information sharing and intelligence gathering to anticipate threats from terrorism and transnational organised crime.
The project also emphasises the need to establish a unified database and a protocol for the collection and processing of information for all security agencies, underlining the importance of inter-agency collaboration. In this respect, one of NORPREVSEC’s priority objectives is for law enforcement agencies to digitise their files for an effective exchange of information, which must be validated before being entered into the INTERPOL system so that it can be shared and analysed by the countries that make up the WAPIS tool.
