Police Inputs 18,000 Prison Inmates’ Data In WAPI System

The Ghana Police Service has submitted data on 18,000 convicts in Ghana for upload into an electronic police data exchange system for the West African sub-region.

This is according to Acting IGP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare who adds that the data is from 2016.

Being inputted into the West African Police Information System (WAPIS) database means it is available for use by other agencies in Ghana and other West African countries.

The Acting IGP had made this known through the Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Isaac Ken Yeboah, who had read a speech on his behalf at the opening of a WAPIS regional training programme in Accra.

WAPIS is aimed at making a central, computerised system available to law enforcement services, pooling resources and allowing police information to be collected, organised and shared in real-time.

Its data is available to Agencies such as the immigration service and the Police within the West African sub-region who can rely on the system to check the background of persons and profile suspects.

WAPIS is funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by Interpol, with political and strategic support from the ECOWAS.

The training on quality of data brought together selected law enforcement officials from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and The Gambia.

Some of the transnational crimes WAPIS seeks to fight include arms smuggling, illicit drug trafficking, piracy, cybercrime, migrant smuggling, robberies, among other security challenges facing the West African sub-region.

Apart from helping its users to fight transnational crime, the WAPIS also serves as a tool for combating terrorism through enhanced police information management and sharing, the Ag. IGP said.

He pledged Ghana’s commitment to the effective implementation of the WAPIS programme to help combat transnational organised crime.

In April this year, Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, signed a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of the programme as recommended by the fifth steering committee of ECOWAS.