Threat of death and assault dominated the criminal cases recorded in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District in 2021, the Ajumako District Police Command has said.
With a total of 96 reported criminal cases, there were 19 cases each of threat of death and assault, each representing 19.8 percent.
This was followed closely by stealing with 18 cases, representing 18.75 percent.
Robbery, on the other hand, had only one case recorded in 2021 and no case at all in 2020.
There were eight cases of causing damage and four causing harm cases while the remaining are cases of defilement, petty thefts, among others.
The 2021 crime situation in the district is an improvement on the situation in 2020 where a total of 114 cases were recorded.
The District Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Stephen Anane Boye Tetteh, said 24 suspects were successfully convicted.
On road accidents, the district saw a total of 19 fatalities and 34 injuries and described the incidents of crime as “very few”, adding that Ajumako, unlike other places, was very peaceful, adding that there were no tough moments for the police.
“Things that make policing tough is where there are robberies and robberies are virtually nonexistent here,” he said.
He expressed admiration for the level of peaceful coexistence that characterized the district with five paramount chiefs and highly commended the people.
“There are a lot of churches and almost everybody belongs to a church. There are Muslims here too and they coexist perfectly,” Chief Superintendent Tetteh said.
The commander also praised his team for doing a good job to maintain order in the district even though their numbers were woefully inadequate.
The Ajumako District Police Command has 33 police personnel taking care of a population of about 163,000, translating into a ratio of around 1:5000 instead of the internationally accepted police-civilian ratio of 1:500.
According to Chief Superintendent Tetteh, the command adopted confidence-building patrols to increase their visibility.
“With our numbers, we make sure that we crisscross all the villages and towns where we interact with people and so it is easy for the people to open up to the police whenever they have any issues,” he said.