Does being a police officer require professional training? if yes, why does the president appoint non professional police officers to head the police when there are trained police officers to appoint from? If there is no need for police professional training but just ability to hold arms and fight, why do taxpayers pay for police training courses? Why not always appoint army men and women to take over police work in the police force and save taxpayers money that goes into police training?
Two, if anybody with security training can be appointed a police officer, why doesn’t the appointing authority also appoint police officers to the army? I think appointing soldiers to police posts and at command level is to lower the respect of police professional training and to demoralize police officers who also aspire to work harder and be promoted to those high ranks. It would be fair if some police officers were also appointed to be commanders in the army.
And this has become a pattern in NRM’s Uganda. Remember General Katumba Wamala, General Kale Kayihura, General Muzeyi Sabiiti and now General Paul Lokech. Officers with no police professional training heading police.
And there are other Departments and Directorates in police headed by army officers. Why is this so. Are there no competent and professional police officers suitable to be deployed in such posts of police? Is militarizing the police not going to lead to increased violation of civil liberties as soldiers are not trained to handle civil policing?
Why this distrust in professional police personnel in favour of army officers in the police force? Is professionalizing the police not as important as professionalizing the army?
The author is a senior lecturer at Makerere University
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