Police should do more to curb crime

In the just-released 2022 annual crime police crime report, statistics show that the crime rate increased by 18 percent compared to the previous annual report.

This was after the police registered an additional 35,000 cases.

According to the report, a total of 231,653 cases were recorded in 2022 compared to 196,081 the previous year.

Of the 183 police divisions/central police stations, Old Kampala registered the highest number of cases with 4,314 followed by Katwe Police Division with 3,938 cases, Luweero Police Station with 3,902, Kamuli Central Police Station 3,268 and Kiryandongo Police Station with 3,179.

The 18 percent increase in crime rate comes despite various drastic measures put in place by the government to curb crime in the country.

Some of the recent measures include; installing CCTV cameras, community policing, enhancing investigations, recruitment of more detectives, tooling, skilling, better management of exhibits, and application of science in investigations, prosecution-led investigations, digitalization and improved welfare.

One would think that with all these measures, there would be a considerable decline in crime.  So where is the problem? Why do we instead have an increase?

We think it’s high time  the strategists went back to the drawing board and reviewed the measures being used to establish whether they are up-to-date or not, relavant, practical, sustainable, feasible or out of touch and impractical.

Could it be that the criminals are ‘ahead’ of the investigators/ detectives? If that is the case, then efforts should be directed towards ensuring that the latter are trained in more sophisticated investigation methods to outsmart the criminals.

There is also a need for benching-marking in other countries that have effectively curbed crime by looking at the measures being used.

We must do more to curb crime. Let the police leadership review its work methods, that is if it wants to live up to its constitutional mandate of protecting life and property, preserving law and order, preventing and detecting crime, among others.  Let’s find the gaps and fix them. Perhaps next year, the trajectory will be different, in a good way.