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Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The police have commenced the installation of closed-circuit cameras in Kitgum municipality.
The project which was halted due to the Covid-19 commenced over the weekend. It is part of the countrywide plan to install surveillance cameras to curb rates of urban crimes.
Kitgum Resident District Commissioner William Komakech says eight cameras will be installed in the first phase of the project within selected areas in the three divisions of Pager, Pandwong and Central.
Police intend to install a total of 15 cameras in the Municipality with seven more expected to be installed in the second phase according to Komakech.
Komakech says the cameras will help to monitor and detect various activities during day and night that amount to traffic offences and other crimes for easy tracing.
Residents and local leaders have welcomed the initiative and anticipate that it will help to reduce crime rates and solve the hard puzzles of identifying the perpetrators.
Geoffrey Omony, a resident of Pager division says the initiative is a blessing given the fact that Kitgum district like other neighbouring districts in Acholi sub-region is recovering from the two decades’ war has been registering growing crimes.
He says security should utilize the cameras to apprehend culprits who have been behind major crimes within the municipality and have always been going free without being identified.
Kissinger Oryem, the Pager B Parish LCV councillor told Uganda Radio Network in an interview Tuesday that there is a need to install the surveillance cameras in crime prone spots.
He says the cameras are currently being installed in areas that will mostly target monitoring of traffic offences yet there are spots with major crimes like stealing that needs records.
He says there is a need to install solar lights and surveillance cameras on Pager bridge where several crimes have been happening as thugs take advantage of the darkness to hide under the bridge and attack unsuspecting people.
The government has injected in over shillings 150 billion in the on-going project to install cameras countrywide.
According to police annual crime report of 2019, implementation of anti-crime infrastructure led to the successful identification of suspects and linking of weapons and suspects to various scenes of crime.
The report indicates that in 2019, CCTV helped in the identification of suspects in seven different cases while forensic examination of weapons used in crime linked several weapons to 21 different crime scenes.
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