Scene of crime officers warned against exhibit theft

Police’s Scene of Crime Officers-SOCOs have been urged to exercise high levels of ethics and moral standards in the conduct of their duties for the good of the image of the Uganda Police Force-UPF.  

The acting Director Forensic Services- Andrew Mubiru made the appeal during the pass out of 60 SOCOs after completing 2 weeks of training in crime scene observation, analysis and exhibit storage at the Directorate of ICT‘s Research development and innovation center in Kikandwa-Wakiso district.     

“You are required to have a high ethical and moral standard because you are dealing with an area where you supervise yourself at a crime scene. If you recover an exhibit or evidence of value like money, nobody is going to be there to superintend over you in terms of what you do, be ethical, conduct yourself with high level of integrity,” said Mubiru  

Mubiru noted that they have lost several cases most especially homicides in courts of law due to some dishonest officers who engage in theft of exhibits. In September last year, four detectives at Katwe Police Station in Kampala were charged with destruction and theft of exhibits. Mubiru says SOCOs should always exercise professionalism and integrity in the execution of their duties.

The 2019 crime report shows that police lost several court cases due to bungled evidence, incomplete files, and failure to question potential witnesses, corruption and missing evidence. However, Mubiru notes that apart from few corrupt officers, the officers face several other challenges such as lack of good equipment, manpower and expertise, which they have started tackling.  
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