POLICE: Crime in Uganda up by 3% – report

There was an increase in homicides and theft in Uganda in 2017 but a drop in traffic accidents, according to the Annual Crime and Traffic Road Safety Report. “Crime in Uganda up by 3%“.

The latest Annual Crime Report covers the period from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 in which 252,065 cases were registered (3% up from 2016). On average 21,005 crimes were reported per month in 2017, compared to 20,332 crimes in 2016 with theft among the leading ones.

There were up to 66,539 cases of thefts reported in 2017 as compared to 43,515 cases reported in 2016, reflecting an increase of 52.9 %.

“While we acknowledge that crimes reported to police increased by 3.3%, this is attributed to the public confidence in the police ability to deal with the reported crimes and making more reports than before.” said Inspector General of Police JM Okoth Ochola on Wednesday at the launch the 2017 Annual Crime and Traffic Road Safety Report at Police Headquarters Naguru.

Okoth Ochola however noted that there was a decrease in the economic crimes, sex related crimes, break ins, robbery, assaults and political media crimes.

“We however note with concern the increase in incidents of violent crimes against persons such as homicides, thefts and child related crimes. There was a 19% decrease in fire emergencies handled by police from 1,356 incidents in 2016 to 1,099 incidents in 2017. due to fine sensitization and public awareness campaigns,” said the IGP.

Traffic and Road safety

The report indicates that toad traffic crashes registered a 8.6% reduction in the number of accidents reported in 2016 from 14,474 in 2016 to 13,244 in 2017. 3,051 were fatal, 6,530 serious and 3,663 were minor.

“The efforts in building traffic police through quantitative and qualitative improvements has yielded positive results and expect further higher quality service delivery in the years to come, Ochola said.

Ochola stated that the Task of fighting crime and keeping roads safe is still a major challenge....


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