Police launch apps for missing persons, items

Technology. Mr Baryamwisaki (Left) and Mr Kasingye demonstrate how the apps work at the police headquarters in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO BY JOSEPH KATO

What you need to know:

  • Mr Baryamwisaki said the apps would, among other things, improve rights of people, reduce incidence of theft of property and ensure quick and timely reunification of property with owners. He said the apps will also improve professionalism and discipline through maximising technology and improving access to police services to which the public is entitled.

Kampala. The Police have launched two mobile phone applications (apps) that will be used to trace missing persons and lost property.

While launching the apps yesterday, Police Chief Commissar Asan Kasingye, and acting ICT director Felix Baryamwisaki said the apps will reduce cases of people and items getting stuck at police stations.
Mr Kasingye said all one needs to do is visit the police website www.upf.go.ug, download the UPF MOBI APP and install on the mobile phone.

“When you click on these apps, a list of nearby police stations and contacts of OC stations are availed. You choose the one you think your person or property could be at and it will present a list of people and property recovered at that particular station,” Mr Kasingye said.

Past experience
He said the apps have been developed by police ICT officers to ease the tracing of missing people and property.
Mr Kasingye said on many occasions, the police recover people, especially children, but they get stuck at stations because their relatives are not aware.

“Quite often, many police stations are littered with many unclaimed property or owners cannot adduce enough evidence to prove that the property belongs to them. In many other instances, the public never gets to know their property is even in the hands of the police. Sometimes, this property is auctioned by order of courts or if returned, it is never in its original form,” Mr Kasingye said.

Mr Baryamwisaki said the apps would, among other things, improve rights of people, reduce incidence of theft of property and ensure quick and timely reunification of property with owners. He said the apps will also improve professionalism and discipline through maximising technology and improving access to police services to which the public is entitled.

“It will also improve access to information because the public must be informed of the property and existence of police station in their locations for ease of access to police services. It will also help in improving openness and transparency through efficient service delivery,” Mr Baryamwisaki said.

Mr Kasingye said the apps are part of the strategic policing plan to implement information management system consisting of six database systems and 26 databases.

Categories. The databases include, among others, motor vehicle registration, drivers’ licence, licence to carry firearms, criminals, crime statistics, traffic accidents and lost and found property. Other databases are for missing persons, arrest warrants, ex-convicts, fingerprints, international criminals, and questioned documents.

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