THE Western Regional Office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service is facing serious infrastructural and logistical problems that are affecting the quality of its service to the public.
The unit lacks adequate vehicles, as a result of which its staff have to travel long distances with their own resources to conduct official duties.
The unit also has no juvenile cell, a situation that has compelled juvenile offenders to share the same cells with adults. There is also no place of convenience for visitors to the unit.
At present, the office is always crowded with victims, perpetrators, suspects and sympathisers who accompany their loved ones to lodge complaints or have their grievances addressed.
Caution statements of victims and suspects are taken in the corridors of some small buildings that are being used as offices.
Briefing the press at the Western Regional Police Command to highlight some of those challenges, the Unit Commander, ASP Cecilia Arko, said it needed to be provided with logistics to expand so as to enable it to perform effectively.
She said the current situation did not provide victims and accused persons the comfort and the needed privacy to state their cases.
She said it was unfortunate that some victims and their sympathisers had to take shelter under trees and in the scorching sun as they waited for their turn.
The unit commander said the current situation rather worsened the plight of victims in their quest to seek legal redress for crimes committed against them.
ASP Arko said the office needed computers and other office equipment. It also had to be renovated to ensure that people who went there for redress did not end up being disappointed.
She also appealed to members of the public and philanthropists to go to the aid of the unit to enable it discharge its duties effectively
The Western Regional Police Commander, DCOP Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, in his remarks, buttressed the call for public support for the Police Service.
He urged visitors to the unit to co-operate with the service, while it took steps to address the problems.
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