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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Thirty four police officers have graduated from the Police Canine Headquarters at Nsambya barracks after completing a five-month course on sniffer dog handling.
The graduation was presided over by the director of police Human Resource Development (HRD), Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Moses Kafeero.
Kafeero, who formerly headed Bwebajja Command and Senior Staff College, praised the Canine Unit for its role in crime detection and urged professionalism and discipline among the officers.
“The canine unit plays a very big role in crime detection, and it has greatly contributed to fighting crime and investigations. It supplements human abilities, and that is why I encourage you to uphold the professionalism and discipline,” AIGP Kafeero said.
The canine unit, headed by Commissioner of Police (CP) Martin Mugume, has helped detectives trace suspects in most cases up to their homes. For instance, the sniffer dogs last week helped Seeta police to trace thugs who attacked a Seeta High School teacher, Nicholas Oloya, and eventually caused his death.
The sniffer dogs led police to the suspects’ hideout out and they were found dismantling the laptop they had stolen from the teacher. So far, seven suspects have been arrested in the investigations that were kick-started by police’s sniffer dogs.
Mugume informed Kafeero that only three were females out of the 34 graduates.
The course focused on Criminal tracking and suspect identification, explosives detection and dog training. The course was also attended by four Special Forces Command (SFC) soldiers who needed the specialized skills since they are always at the forefront of protecting the head of state.
“The canine is very important in crime detection, and we advocate for continued specialized training. The participation of four of our colleagues from the Special Forces Command officers is a sign of inter-force collaboration,” CP Mugume said.
CP Mugume has, over the years, transformed the police canine unit to the extent of being ranked among the best by international security experts, especially with the handling of security at Entebbe International Airport. Several drug contrabands have been intercepted by police deployed sniffer dogs at Entebbe Airport.
Recently, groups of people emerged trying to influence decision makers in the government to supply police with imported sniffer dogs, whereby one goes for more than USD10,000 (about UGX37M,) but CP Mugume proved that sniffer dogs bred and trained in Uganda were much better than imported ones. Locally bred, nurtured and trained sniffers require a cost of only seven million shillings, which is very little compared to imported canines of more than USD10,000.
Even President Yoweri Museveni, at the recent police council, said the focus should be on force multipliers, such as sniffer dogs than spending a lot of money on recruiting new police officers who need salary, accommodation, allowances and clothing.
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