On several occasions people have accused police of a number of issues ranging from the increasing rate of corruption, brutality, mishandling of criminal cases, failure to compile cases in time, delay in attending to their clients among others.
2019 report released by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) ranked police among the top most corrupt government agencies in the country.
In a bid to improve on service delivery in all the public institutions, SEMA Uganda, a local civil organisation started an annual survey to analyze the performance of different government agencies which include, courts, municipalities, police stations, cities among others.
This survey has greatly helped some of these institutions to improve on the way of handling and addressing public affairs.
During the release of the report last week in Ntinda a Kampala suburb, Ntinda Police Station was given a certificate of recognition for its outstanding performance in Kampala Metropolitan area over the last four years.
The chief executive director SEMA Uganda, Ms Nathalie Josephine revealed that the survey was only done in five major police stations in Kampala metropolitan area due to lack of enough funds to cover all the stations.
“We measured in five stations, so there are many stations we did not cover because we did not have enough funds.That was our decision and the police allowed us to measure otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get this information, “she explained.
She however, said this year the organisation expects to extend it’s wing to over eight police stations in different parts of the country.
The ranking of these police stations from the best to the worst is as follows Ntinda police station, Jinja road police station, Wandegeya police station, Kira police station and Central police station(CPS)
Ms Josephine further explained the methodologies used to carry out this research noting that in the five major police stations around Kampala ,the stations were evaluated based on their way of handling cases and responsiveness to the public affairs among others.
She said the results of the research were partially got from the machines which were introduced and placed at different police stations in which members of the public could use to rate the police service in that area.
“We have different machines and these Machines help you to determine how you have been assisted a given police station, if you are happy with it’s services, you press happy and if you are not satisfied with the service of the police or the way you were handled, you press unhappy,”she explained.
“We look at the average satisfaction rate over the four years and we compare to all the major police stations in Kampala metropolitan area.we also look at how long you have to wait before you are served.we look at the friendness of the staff. We look at bribery rate,”she noted.
She said interviews were also carried out from the members of the public to ascertain the facts on how they were served by these police stations.
“We also train data collectors, SEMA Uganda volunteers who stand outside the offices at these police stations, they approach you, they ask you how was it, how happy are you about the police service, why are you not happy and we get to assess,”she added.
In an interview with Ug mirror, the spokesperson Kampala metropolitan area, SP Patrick Onyango congrulated the best police stations and urged them to continue serving public in the best way possible.
He however defended the poorly performed stations noting that the workload in these police stations vary from one station to another.
“I know central police station receives very many clients more that the other small community stations. you can find that serving few people, you can act and serve them better but where there are very many people like here sometimes officers are over worked,”he said.
He said most of the police stations in Kampala have not yet met the standard required by United Nation because they are serving high population compared to available resources.
“If CID is supposed to investigate 4 file cases a year according to UN but here you find an officer is investigating over two thousand cases per year, so the work load is so high,”he said.
Meanwhile, ASP Moses Wegulo,the officer in charge of Ntinda police station expressed his gratitude towards the recognition the station received as the best within Kampala metropolitan area.
“We feel good ,of course ,there are so many police stations within Kampala metropolitan area, so to emerged the best we really deserve it. we are on ground and we are up-to our task. we are doing what we are supposed to do.we are doing what the citizens expect us to do,”he said.
“There are many things we handle as police, the way we serve our clients is what differentiate us from other police stations within the area, we think that the citizens of this country are the very people who go to these various police stations so what is entirely done here is what is done in another police station and service delivery matters ,so we are extraordinary in doing our work,”he said.
Though the station managed to scooped the best, Mr Wegulo said there are some areas of weakness which need improvement.
“As a station we have set targets since we are public servant.we tend to serve people therefore serving people there are things we must be practicing like customer care ,the way we handle different cases here at the station but customer care and supervision has really made us to excel,”he noted.
He said the station managed to fight all forms of corruption among it’s staff by taking actions against those found culpable.
“We are going to make sure that we maintain this credit and outcompete whoever comes on board.we might not have scored 90 plus but this time round we might work towards hitting the highest percentage, we are so proud for what we have achieved, it is not easy, it’s all about sacrifice,”he said.
Mr Wegulo also advised all the police stations and officers to always take the public as the first priority.
He further urged other civil society organisations and the public to always appreciate the little work done by the force and refrain from all kinds of negativity.
“We can’t avoid criticism from politicians or the public , serving the public is not easy, there are many challenges but for us as police in Ntinda, our task is to serve the public and we shall always make sure our people are served in the best way,”he said.
