The Director-General of CID in a group photograph with dignitaries and participants

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) is planning to build a Digital Forensic Laboratory to help ensure effective investigation of cybercrime.

The Director-General of CID, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, said by the end of this year, the equipment for fighting cybercrime would arrive in the country to help the police to combat crime.

During the official opening of a workshop on cybercrime and electronic evidence organised for 50 selected personnel from the GPS, EOCO and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the CID boss said the use of ICT to commit crime had become prevalent. She stressed the need for investigators to always be abreast of the realities on the ground.

The Director in charge of Cyber Crime Unit of the CID, Dr Gustav Hebert Yankson, said that in Ghana cybercrime such as fraud, sextortion, copyright infringements, child pornography, charlatanic adverts, were mostly reported.

“Ghana also suffered 50 crypto jacking attacks on five of our Internet service providers within the first quarter of this year,” he revealed.

“Cybercrime investigations and evidence processing have not been part of our mainstream police curriculum until about two years ago, although the cyber laws in Ghana were promulgated in 2008,” he added.

The workshop was organised by Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) and Africa Alliance Partnership (AAP).

Also present were representatives of Google, sponsors of the workshop; Markus Green, Board Chair of Conference of Western Attorneys General–Africa Alliance Partnership; Deputy Director-General of CID, ACP George Tweneboah; Director in charge of Operations at the CID, ACP Joseph Oklu Gyamera, and Ghana Bar Association (GBA) representative, Tony Forson, among others.