I would like to take this opportunity on my own and on behalf of entire the Police fraternity, to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2020. The festive season is all about thanksgiving and rejoicing, where many families and communities come together to celebrate.
Therefore, as we ready ourselves to celebrate Christmas, and usher in the new-year, let us be mindful about opportunistic criminals out there, who would wish to take advantage of the slightest opportunity to rob or steal what you have worked for throughout the year, and or commit any other crimes .
On our side, this year has been full of challenges and competing demands on crime and safety. We registered selected incidents of violent crimes, which had created fear in the public, but we worked tirelessly throughout the year, after adopting several strategies and initiatives that helped crack down on the violent crimes of murder by shooting, aggravated robberies and kidnappings to mention a few. Some of these strategies included; an expansive crime prevention initiative; response effectiveness through community outreaches; crime mapping and data collection; efficient resource allocation; hotspot policing where violent crime is concentrated; problem oriented policing, use of new technologies like CCTV surveillance, DNA fingerprinting of guns, and automated fingerprint analysis. We also made improvements on how we conduct intelligence and investigations; recruited more police officers to enhance our manpower intensive practices like patrols and visibility; and also profiling and pursuing known repeat criminals.
We plan to continue with our operational activities in the New-year, with a focus on serious and dangerous criminals, who undermine the safety of Ugandans and visitors to our country. Our intensified operations in the third quarter of this year ensured that very dangerous suspects who were behind the violent murders of boda-boda riders, mobile money dealers and innocent civilians were arrested and charged to court. We also conducted sting operations to tackle the growing problem of dealers in suspected stolen properties, particularly, of mobile phones, other electronic gadgets, motorcycles and thefts of utilities like pylons, cables and pipes.
We are going to support this work and direct more resources in fighting such criminals.
So far, the festive month of December, 2019, is generally peaceful, simply because we countered and disrupted the advance preparations of criminals, early enough. These and many positive results were entirely due to the collaborative and strategic alliances we made with our sister security agencies, like the UPDF, CMI, ISO, ESO and other partners under the Criminal Justice System .We thank them all and we pledge to continue the excellent work together, which points to a stronger future in our policing.
We would like to thank the public for their increased level of cooperation, especially the local councils and volunteers, who have supported us by reporting anyone involved or suspected of crime. We are further asking the public to play their part, to keep themselves and everyone safe, by following the crime prevention and safety tips issued by us (see attachment)
Finally, as we come to the end of 2019, we would like once again, to extend a happy Christmas and wish you all, a New Year, 2020, full of aspirations and new resolutions. We look forward to working closely again with you all in 2020.
Merry Christmas and a prosperous New year.
J.M.Okoth-Ochola (Esq.)
Inspector General of Police
23rd December, 2019
