By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: Several police officers who included mainly Criminal Investigations Commandants have Monday morning held a secret high level meeting at Police headquarters in Naguru, aimed at combating the increasing cases of crime in several urban centres across Uganda.
The five-day meeting, opened by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Martin Okoth Ochola, has attracted CID commandant  from specialized units, regions, districts, divisions and station commandants. Criminal Investigations Director (CID) Grace Akullo said that emphasis will be put on crime scene management, scrutinizing and implementing court orders, and managing emerging crime trends.
The discussion comes amidst public concern about the rate at which cases are dismissed by courts, allegedly due to lack of substantive evidence. Police crime reports for the years; 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 show that the police have registered 25,000 case dismissals, translating into an average of 6,550 dismissals per year.  During the Monday meeting, IGP Ochola tasked investigators to always be open and truthful, store exhibits safely and desist from accepting or demanding for rewards during investigations.  Ochola also warned police officers against torturing suspects, urging  them to exercise professionalism during their work. However, this comes at a time when there are several cases of armed robberies in which several mobile money dealers have been shot dead, cases of stabbings, boda-boda thefts and murder of riders, kidnap, fraud, among others, which seem to be overwhelming the police.
