KAMPALA- Makerere University and the Uganda Police Force (UPF) have joined forces to train 400 people in a bid to achieve a crime-free society.
Already 100 senior and lower-ranking officers have been re-skilled to deal with the communities.
The training followed a research by Makerere University, which revealed a gap between senior and junior officers in how they handled the community. Senior Officers were found to be more competent in dealing with communities.
Co-principal investigator ACP Dr Barbara ALUNGAT psc. says the Project: Rethinking Community Policing; towards a crime-free society, is aimed at training 400.
Ongoing, ACP Dr. Alungat said, is training of police officers, community leaders, local councils and religious leaders on Community policing.
ACP Dr. Alungat says partnerships (between Makerere and Police) and communities should be put at the centre, and look at how each officer needs the awareness of the community they serve for the specific content because the needs of the community in Kawempe are different from the needs of the community in Katwe, Nansana, Mpigi and Greater Masaka.
“Our research recommends revisiting the philosophy of community policing in order to have a crime-free society and peaceful communities. So, we need to work together. We have been in this partnership (with Police) for a long time. We also train Police in Masters in Peace and Conflicts Studies. We also need these communities to be empowered economically, especially on basic needs. Community policing is very important and we believe that its philosophy needs to be revisited to achieve what we call integral policing,” said Research and Innovation Fund Makerere University representative Prof. Helen Nkabala Nambalirwa.
Principal Investigator, Prof. Veneranda Mbabazi, says that recommendations of the research are being implemented to address the policing gap.
