How much should a police dog cost? Police makes Shs4bn requisition
It should be noted that in January 2023, police asked for UGX 968 billion to procure 750 dogs to expand the force's canine unit in order to fight crime in Uganda.
Uganda police Firce has revealed that in 2022/23, the force imported 10 dogs of which 30 puppies are being trained as future sniffer dogs.
The revelation was made by James Ochaya , Director Research, Planning and Development while appearing before Parliament’s Internal Affairs Committee, where the force had been summoned to update Parliament on its performance for the 2022/2023 financial year.
It should be noted that in January 2023, police asked for UGX 968 billion to procure 750 dogs to expand the force’s canine unit in order to fight crime in Uganda.
“We were also able to import 5pairs of canine dogs to enhance breeding and currently, we have 30 puppies being trained at the Nagalama breeding centre. These new units now bring the number of canine units to now 88, but that is only 47% of the country coverage but we are now constructing 8 more cannons that means the percentage will improve,” said Ochaya.
According to Uganda Police Force, there were 19,716 trackings conducted by the canine unit, resulting into arrest of 15,927 suspect and recovery of 6,386 exhibits, while 5,784 suspects were taken to court.
Uganda Police also lamented about the high attrition rate within the Force, with the top management indicating that after the 2021 general elections, about 4000 Police officers left the Force, a trend that has exerted pressure on the human resource.
“That means, for the last 3-4years, we have lost about 4000 Police officers. However, they allowed us to recruit, in the last financial year, where we managed to recruit 2500 police officers on replacement basis. But the replacement basis doesn’t improve our position at all, so we needed to have more recruitments so that our visibility is felt,” added Ochaya.
