President Museveni will later today, Wednesday , address the 28th Police Council meeting sitting at the Police headquarters in Naguru, the Nile Post has learnt.
According to sources privy to the matter, the new sub-county policing model will be high on the agenda as the president addresses the Police Council.
The president in 2019 asked police to establish subcounty policing model where each sub county should have a police station with 18 or 20 officers and four motorcycles , two of which are for emergencies.
The Inspector General of Police, Abbas Byakagaba recently said that the new policing model has taken shape, having already been implemented in North West Nile, Rwizi, Kira, Rwenzori East, Sipi, Greater Masaka, Greater Bushenyi, and Albertine police regions.
Over 10,000 officers have so far been transferred to these areas to implement the new model.
“Each sub county will have an officer in charge of a police station, 12 personnel from general duties for carrying out patrols, an officer from CID, another one from crime intelligence, child and family protection unit and a Community Liaison Officer for connecting to the general population,” Byakagaba said.
He said they will have three motorcycles for each sub county and walkie-talkie radios to ease communication among police officers.
“We shall also have a counter phone at every subcounty. This number will be popularized to ensure every person is aware of this number to ensure people easily communicate to police station and response will be very quick,” Byakagaba added.
He said the new model will ensure police cement its presence around the country but also reduce on response time to incidents.
“With the sub-county policing model, we shall achieve quick response to incidents and real time attention to matters affecting local communities. We hope at the minimum, we shall attain 85% of attention in real time of calls to people,” Byakagaba said.
“We also expect this program to facilitate consolidated and functional police station readily available to attend to concerns and security problems of those particular area.”
During today’s meeting, the IGP is expected to formally give a report to President Museveni about the implementation of the new policing model.
Police Council
Section 10 of the Police Act 1994 stipulates that there shall be a Police Council with the Inspector General of Police as its chairperson.
The Police Council also consists of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, all directors, commandant of the mobile police patrol unit, Regional Police Commanders’ representatives, officers at the police headquarters responsible for operations, training, finance, personnel, legal affairs, community affairs and research and planning among others.
Other members to the Police Council are appointed by the IGP in consultation with the police unit commanders and these include an officer of the rank of assistant superintendent, an officer of the rank of inspector, three noncommissioned officers and the officer responsible for the administration of the force who shall be the secretary.
Functions
According to article 11 of the Police Act 1994, the Police Council is responsible for recruitment, appointment and promotion of police officers up to the rank of inspector of police.
The Police Council is also responsible for exercising disciplinary control over all police officers through the police courts, advise the police authority on the ranks structure in the force, formulate terms and conditions of service of members of the force subject to approval by the police authority, formulate and establish standards of recruitment and training within the force and to determine the types and quality of equipment and supplies to be procured by the force.
The Police Council is also responsible for formulating and advising the police authority on the policies of the force and ensure their implementation of that policy among other key functions.
