KAMPALA: Speaking on Wednesday at the pass out of 37 senior police and prison officers at Bwebajja police college, Police’s Director for Human Resource Development, Godfrey Golooba, reprimanded police commanders who take bribes and delay responding to crime incidents.
Golooba said individual police officers who are sloppy at responding to crime incidents and taking bribes to offer services have tainted the image of the force.
He said they are retraining commanders and senior staff police officers so that they can know that serving the public is the first priority in their duties.
“You should know that your individual acts taint the entire image of the force. You have completed this course and make sure that you apply what you have learned to your daily duties,” Golooba said.
The Auditor-General report released ranked the Uganda Police the first position in corruption tendencies. This, according to Golooba, is being done by individuals but has a serious impact on the entire police force.
Uganda Radio Network, a news partner of the Kampala Report learned that the course that started in January this year (2022) had 45 trainees. But eight of them dropped out along the way.
The 37 senior police and prison officers have completed the refresher course in human security, command, and administrative roles. The officers include 21 Assistant Superintendents and 16 Superintendents.
Moses Kafeero, the College Commandant also tasked the graduates to implement the skills they have acquired in serving humanity.
Kafeero said it would be bad if the officers do not exhibit the knowledge they have attained in improving the policing standards in the areas they’ll be deployed.
Kafeero explained that during the course, trainees were taken to various places including the National Command Centre at Naguru police headquarters including some selected extremely busy police stations purposely to appreciate the policing duties and need to employ technical competencies to meet the public needs.
Police records show Kampala Metropolitan Policing divisions mostly Katwe, Old Kampala, CPS, Kawempe, and Wandegeya attend to over 500 people including suspects every day.
The National Command Centre which is also known as the Nation CCTV command centre connects all the division and station CCTVs monitoring rooms to the national grid.
Trainees were shown how cameras are vital tools in policing and need full-time attendance in order to serve their purpose.
Among the graduates include Grace Nyangoma who grabbed the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago by his groin before bundling him onto a waiting van.
Other graduates include Lameck Kigozi who was once police spokesperson for Greater Masaka and Rwenzori West.
Allan Roberts Atuhaire was awarded for keeping their colleagues motivated even when at times morale was low.
Anne Tusiime, the Deputy Director of Human Resource Development extolled police leadership for increasing the number of female police officers going for command courses.
Out of the 37 graduates, 13 were females and among them was the overall student Bettina Nalugo.
