Police distributes 300 scene of crime officers

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The Police’s Directorate of Forensic Science – DFS has distributed 330 Scene of Crimes Officers to ease the collection of exhibits at crime scenes.    

Andrew Mubiru, the Acting Director DFS said the personnel have been deployed at least in each of the districts in the country. In some crime-prone areas, two or three SOCOs have been deployed.

Mubiru was speaking on Thursday at the commissioning of DFS which has been under construction since 2014.

SOCOs are police personnel who are trained in securing and collecting even the tiniest piece of an exhibit at the crime scene so that it can be used as evidence during the prosecution of suspects.

Mubiru said with now a full-fledged DFS case backlog that has been requiring scientific evidence will reduce.

DFS is an addition to Closed Circuit Television -CCTV National Command Centre where the police force is transforming from an along the way of policing to using modern technology through aiding 24/7 monitoring of crime and ease in investigations. 

Criminal Investigations Directorate headed by Grace Akullo, in its reports has been listing delayed forensic reports as one of the major reasons dragging on cases of murder, rape, defilement, poisoning, forgery and corruption. 

Out of more than 220,000 cases recorded in 2019, CID only took 34 percent to court because of delayed forensic evidence and the inadequate number of detectives. 

Mubiru said cases of gun violence and explosion will no longer be difficult to investigate after the commissioning of DFS. 

Gun investigations have been dragging on for years. Most of the prominent persons killed using guns since 2014 have had their cases dismissed or suspects acquitted for lack of evidence.

In some gun cases such as the murder of State Prosecutor, Joan Kagezi and Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abriga and many others, the police have failed to arrest the suspects despite picking cartridges at crime scenes.

Mubiru informed Principal Judge, Dr Flavian Zeija, who was the chief guest accompanied by deputy IGP Maj Gen Paul Lokech that with DFS gun cases shall be easy to investigate since data of all firearms in hands of police, individuals and Private Security Organizations is now readily available.

At least 57,000 guns have been documented in the last one year save those held by military agencies.

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