4,000 CID detectives to be vetted afresh

Kampala. The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, has ordered the vetting of all the detectives and intelligence officers in the police directorates of criminal investigations and intelligence.
Gen Kayihura said the vetting and retraining of detectives and intelligence officers is one of the 13 strategic tasks in their three-year plan, to build the capacity of the two directorates that have been a subject of public criticism over high crime rates in the country.

“The third task we have is building the directorate of criminal investigations. We are going to vet, retrain and retool all the 4,000 detectives in the directorates. Detectives must have modern tools to carry out their investigations,” Gen Kayihura said during the pass out of senior officers at the Police Academy in Bwebajja on Entebbe Road last Friday.

Training
The detectives, who will have passed the vetting process, will be trained by former agents of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and UK’s Scotland Yard.
The foreign agents are expected to start training in March this year. FBI carries out intelligence and investigates major cases in the US while Scotland Yard (Metropolitan Police Service) carries out law enforcement duties in Greater London, in the United Kingdom.
In 2012, Gen Kayihura reverted majority of the old detectives from CID, whom he accused of being complacent and corrupt.

The IGP replaced them with young officers, but the crime rate only rose.
The fresh vetting comes at the time when President Museveni and the public are mounting pressure on police leadership for failing to detect crime and carrying out sloppy investigations. Previous vetting in other police departments, such as the Land Protection Police Unit, has led to the reverting of hundreds of police officers to general duties and field force unit, where there are low chances of getting bribes.

Budget
In this year’s budget, police spent nearly half on operations.
Only Shs33 billion goes to CID leaving it with a shortfall of Shs75 billion.
The financial shortfall in the CID is reflected in its inability to investigate most of the cases that are reported at police stations. More than 300,000 cases have not been investigated in the last six years due to shortage of funds.

Gen Kayihura said in future, they are to construct two colleges for training intelligence officers and detectives at a 100-acre piece of land they acquired in Kikandwa, Mityana District.
It is on the same land that the police are to relocate the Police Academy, which has been in Bwebajja on Entebbe Road.
The structures at Bwebajja are to be turned into a boarding secondary school to educate orphans of police officers.

Challenges
Criticism. President Museveni and the public are mounting pressure on police leadership for failing to detect crime and carrying out sloppy investigations.

Financial shortfall. More than 300,000 cases have not been investigated in the last six years due to shortage of funds.

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