Over 250,000 crimes committed in 2017- report

The police crime report has indicated that a total of 252,065 cases of crimes were reported to police in the year 2017.

The police had not released its crime report for a period of two years.

The report released on Wednesday at the police headquarters in Naguru indicated that homicides, child related crimes, thefts, corruption and narcotics  related crimes registered an increase among  cases reported to police in the year 2017.

By the end of 2017, a total of 66,626 cases had been taken to court, out of which 18,961 cases secured convictions but over 1000 were acquitted whereas 9,613 cases were dismissed.

“A total of 105,017 cases were by December 2017 still under investigation while 36,633 cases were still pending in court. A total of 77,675 suspects were charged in courts of law,” reads in part the report.

The report shows that 253,316 people were victims of crime, 164,177 of these being males and 89,139 were females.

On average, according to the report, 21,005 crimes were reported per month in 2017, compared to 20,332 crimes reported in 2016.

Ntungamo, Mbarara, Mpigi, Mbale and Gulu registered the highest number of crimes in the year 2017.

The report indicated that a total of 14,985 children had been defiled whereas 1335 females were raped, numbers which had reduced from the 17,395 and 1454 respectively during the previous year 2016.

Murder

The report indicates that 4473 people were murdered in the year 2017 compared to 4315 in 2016.

On March 17, police spokesperson AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi was killed when unknown assailants allegedly travelling on motorcycles sprayed his vehicle with bullets killing him instantly together with his bodyguard, Corporal Kenneth Erau and driver Godfrey Mambewa.

The report also pointed out that a total of 164 people were shot dead in the year 2017, 148 of whom being males and 16 being females.

“By the end of the year, 53 cases of death by shooting were taken to court, 03 cases secured conviction, 02 cases were dismissed while 47 cases were still pending in court. A total of 96 cases were still under investigations,” reads in part the report released by police.

A total of 23 people were arraigned in court and eight of these were committed to High Court for trial whereas the rest have since been granted bail by Nakawa magistrates court.

Commenting about the report, the Inspector General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola attributed most of the crimes to the increase in the number of people using drugs all over the country.