By witnessradio.org Team

A new report released by Human Rights Network – Uganda (HURINET-U) claims that 53% of citizens living in Masaka and Kampala as well as 48% from in Wakiso have no faith in police’s role of keeping law and order thus making them feel unsafe.

Currently, Uganda has over 48,000 police officers with majority being deployed in urban centers Kampala inclusive.

The Report entitled “towards a Democratic and accountable police service: the public perception on the state of policing in Uganda took a keen look at police work for the past five years. The survey targeted Ugandans in eight districts of Uganda that include Kayunga, Masaka, Luweero, Jinja ,Wakiso, Kampala, Mpigi and Mukono.

The 116 pages report stated that lack of safety and security resulted into increased levels of criminality in the country, particularly gun violence and emergence of criminal gangs that continue to terrorize members of the public without being apprehended by the Uganda Police Force.

The report recorded an increase of crimes in communities in the last five years with Burglary and house break–in, ranked the most common crime related problem, followed by theft, murder, arson and sexual crimes.

Courts were not spared too and shared the blamed for the increased criminality due to the lenient sentences granted to those convicted. Other causes of the increase in crime trends include: police corruption, and inefficiency of local government structures and breakdown of community social structures as well as poor policing practices.

The report revealed that more Ugandans totaling to 49% in the covered districts are giving up on reporting cases to Uganda Police Force for fear of intimidation from perpetrators of crimes.

President Museveni on March 19th, 2017 said criminals had infiltrated the Uganda Police Force and other security agencies, which has compromised investigations into high profile killings. Museveni was speaking at the home of the slain Assistant Inspector General of Police Andrew Felix Kaweesi, the President ordered Gen Kale Kayihura to “clean the police of these infiltrators.

Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) reported that 1,658 cases of torture were registered between 2012 and 2016. In the report, Uganda Police alone was responsible for 1,016 torture complaints while the Uganda People’s Defence Forces followed closely with 275 cases.

The new report by HURINET UGANDA however indicated that the last five years have witnessed increased police visibility and accessibility across the eight districts covered by the survey. It reported that 54% of the respondents confirmed the police visibility through  increased number of police stations/posts, presence of uniformed police officers in the public domain, increased motorized patrols and enhancement of community policing.

With a budget of over 528 billion shillings this Financial Year, the report found the state of police stations across the eight districts was wanting in all aspects and falls short of the established international standards. The stations are detached from the communities they serve; have dilapidated structures and police detention facilities do not meet the required minimum standards.

The Police force failed to protect its image as members of the public raised complaints of errant police officers who do not get the required remedy, leaving such officers not held accountable for their actions.

The report suggests that 66% of the respondents who had successfully reported their complaints to police were dissatisfied with the manner in which they were handled. They cited delayed response from police, poor handling of complaints and cases of corruption within the Professional Standards Unit (PSU). On the overall, the respondents were dissatisfied with the level at which Uganda Police was moving towards meeting tenets of democratic policing.

Also, the report attributed the low levels of responsiveness to community concerns on increased militarization of Uganda Police Force, lack of neutrality, abuse of human rights, lack of accountability by officers who commit human rights violations, poor handling of investigations and case files as well as existence of draconian laws that police has persistently applied selectively.

To this, HURINET-U wants an Independent Police Oversight Authority to replace the Professional Standards Unit (PSU) that will review the Police Standing Orders to ensure that they are consistent with modern policing procedures and the force streamlines the recruitment, promotion and transfer processes to ensure professionalism.