DPP ABODO: CRIMINAL CASES ARE DELAYED BY LIMITED NUMBERS OF COURT PROSECUTORS

The police annual crime report of 2023 released on February 21, 2024 indicated a general slight decline of 1.5% in the volume of crimes reported to police which is from 231,653 to 228,074 cases.

However, the report released at Naguru based Police Headquarters has indicated that  there was a registered increase in theft, terrorism and sex- related offences from 61,508 to 65,901(theft), 15 to 26 (terrorism) and 14 ,693 to 14,846 (sex-related) respectively.

The Director Crime Intelligent Directorate Tom Magambo said that, although there was a significant reduction in domestic violence cases, there were terrible cases involving loss of lives even including police force members.

He also noted that causes an increase in thefts cases range from social, economic and political aspects and an increase in domestic violence cases is not a challenge of police alone but of the entire society which needs concerted efforts to avert it.

Of the 228,074 cases, 12,924 were economic and corruption crimes, 10,741 were child-related offences, sex relate(14,846) , domestic violence (14,681) sex related offences, 29,884 assault cases, breakings  (14,543), robberies (7,768) and homicide (4,248).

The report also highlights that a total of 84,907 cases were committed to court while 94,535 are still under inquiry and 843 had suspects acquitted whereas 10,096 cases were dismissed due to lack of sufficient evidence, 46,843 cases are still pending in court and 123,590 have their files submitted and are yet to be handled by the Directorate of Public prosecution.

Furthermore the report shows that, 231,601 persons were victims of crime, a figure that indicates that   out of every 100,000 people, 501 are victims of crime. All the cases reported to police in 2023, there were 104, 088 suspects and 94,622 were male adults, 6,509 female adults ,while 2,657 male and 300 female juveniles respectively.

In 2023, there was a registered increase in traffic and road safety crashes of 15.5% from 456,993 in 2022 to 528,025 cases the year 2023 and of these,  23,608 crashes were reported to police, 4179 being fatal, 12,487 serious and 6942 are minor.

The number of fatal crashes increased by 30% and according to the acting Director of Traffic Directorate Lawrence Niwabine, most people who perished these accidents was below the age of 35 years. He also attributed the increase in crashes to the two wheeled cycles commonly known as bodabodas.

The Director of Public Prosecution(DPP), Justice Jane Francis Abodo who also attended the crime report launch hailed police and the sister security agencies for the reduced number of crime rate in the country.

Mrs Abodo however argued police to migrate from security guided to evidence guided if they are to improve more in handling crime cases to their logical conclusion.

“ We need to continue speak one voice all the sister security agencies together with the prosecution directorate if we are to achieve the desired goal.’’ Justice Abodo cautioned.

She also challenged the CID department to attract witnesses in the cases they are handling because when witness are not summoned then cases remain pending like it was the case with the year 2023 were a total of 46,843 remained pending in court.

The DPP also said that her department is lacking adequate man power the vice that delays case handling leading to a backlog of case. The ratio according to Mrs. Abodo, stands at 1 prosecutor to 4 judicial officers.

By George Bukenya

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