The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Criminal Investigations Directorate –CID has a deficit of more than 14,000 detectives. The directorate needs at least 19,843 detectives to march the fast-growing population and increasing crime rates.
But out of these, the directorate only has 5,292 detectives, a shortfall of 14,551 personnel. The shortage in numbers of detectives according to CID director, Grace Akullo has increased the workload among the existing personnel, and unresolved case backlog. The current workload stands at 45 case files per detective.
“In areas with high crime rates like Kampala metropolitan policing areas, detectives have between 50 – 70 case files per year. This is way above to UN standard,” Akullo states in her reports. The UN standard allows detectives to handle at least 12 cases a year, an average of one file every month.
The directorate records show that only 34 percent of the 215 224 cases reported to the police last year were taken to court because of insufficient numbers. Akullo adds that manpower, logistical constraints, and insufficient budgets continue to affect the ability of the police force to tackle crime.
However, a senior police officer told URN that at least 300 personnel currently undergoing training at Kabalye Police Training School –PTS in Masindi will be deployed in the Criminal Investigations Directorate. They are part of the 5,100 recruits soon completing the one-year training course.
“We have been promised that over 300 new police officers will be given to us once they are passed out in September. Our wish is to get at least 1,000 policemen and women so that we can replace those that are soon retiring,” a senior detective said.
The trainees include 4,500 Probation Police Constables, while 500 are Learner Assistant Inspectors of Police. Police say the 5,100 police trainees will boost police personnel numbers from the current 41,760.
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