The Ghana Police Service, as part of its transformation agenda has implemented a comprehensive reorganisation of the cybercrime unit (CU) at the CID Headquarters. The unit has also been decentralized to all the 25 police regional commands across the country to bring its services closer to the public.
This strategic reorganisation has positioned the CU as an expert unit to support criminal investigation by delivering services such as cyber forensic analysis, digital devices forensic analysis, mobile and network forensic analysis and digital content forensic analysis instead of its initial focus on general criminal investigations such as building case dockets and direct handling of suspects.
As part of the first phase of the decentralization process, the Service has undertaken specialized training of 151 personnel and deployed them to the 25 police regions across the country to complement criminal investigations within the regions.
The training encompassed a wide range of critical areas, including but not limited to digital wallet (mobile money) fraud, Social Engineering, Insider Threats and Online Scam. Others were bank card fraud, File System Forensics and Artifact Analysis as well as Network and Memory Forensics.
The decentralization of the CU aligns with the broader goals of modernizing the Police Service and ensuring that it remains at the forefront of tackling emerging threats in the digital age.