The Inspector General of Police, Abas Byakagaba has revealed that police will deploy majority of the recently passed out Probationer Police Constables to the sub-county policing model.
“With these young men and women passing out today, the remaining 960 (44%) sub counties in the nine (9) policing regions will be operationalized with 8200 (82%) set to be deployed in the sub counties,” Byakagaba said.
He was on Friday speaking during the pass out ceremony for 9,952 Probationer Police Constables at the Police Training School, Kabalye in Masindi district.
The function was graced by President Museveni.
The president in 2019 directed police to move away from being visible in only urban centres but also have present in rural areas .
He directed that policing services closer to the communities by ensuring that every subcounty, town council and municipal has a fully operational police station with at least 18 officers, motorcycles, counter phone and radio communication system.
Speaking on Friday, IGP Byakagaba reported to Museveni that the sub-county policing model has taken effect, noting that so far, 1,231 sub counties representing 56% of all sub counties in the country in 23 regions have been covered.
Byakagaba said 26,034 Police officers, 1885 motorcycles and 1268 counter phones have been deployed to these sub counties.
“We are prioritizing acquisition of electric motorcycles to fully realize the desired 7480 motorcycles across all the sub counties,” Byakagaba said.
He noted that the 8200 PPCs out of the 9,952 fresh officers will beef up the manpower gap for the sub county model to cover areas which are currently not yet covered.
Manpower
Police has on several occasions sought for more officers to close the police-to-population ratio .
Speaking on Friday, Byakagaba admitted more needs to be done to add more manpower to the force.
"This is the first time the Uganda Police Force has trained and passed out 9,952 recruits in a single intake. This represents a 20.5% increase from our previous manpower strength of 48,417 officers. We thank you for enabling us to achieve this milestone," Byakagaba said.
He explained that with the addition of the new recruits, the force's strength will rise to 58,369 officers, of whom 43,737 (75%) are male. This translates into a police-to-population ratio of 1:839, although he acknowledged that the force remains below the international benchmark of one police officer for every 500 people.
“There is need for more recruitment to counter attrition and need to sustain and fully position ourselves in all the sub counties. We seek for authorization and support to recruit 3000 personnel per year for the next five years,” Byakagaba told the president.
Speaking during the pass out, President Museveni urged police to use modern policing tools to combat crime.
“Criminals are easy to deal with because they always leave evidence behind. They don’t come in helicopters; they walk or use motorcycles,” he said.
Museveni urged police to make greater use of police canine units in tracking suspects, particularly in cases involving theft of agricultural produce such as coffee.
“When criminals steal coffee and escape on foot, use police dogs. But also educate the public not to interfere with crime scenes so the dogs can do their work.”
He added that Uganda’s expanding CCTV camera network should also be fully utilised in tracking criminals travelling by motorcycles or motor vehicles.
