Updated by Faith Barbara Namagembe 1813 EAT on Sunday 17th July 2022.

Maj Gen Geoffrey Tumusiime Katsigazi, the deputy inspector general of police (DIGP), has called for the strengthening of the police canine unit in order to defeat criminality.

He said this on July 14 during a tour of the unit’s headquarters at Nsambya barracks and the K9 breeding centre at Naggalama police station.

“I commend the canine unit for its professionalism in the fight against criminality. The unit’s specialized sniffer dogs have greatly contributed to the apprehending of criminals on top of averting possible crimes. With more funding to have presence at lower levels of policing, the unit can be an even greater asset in the fight against criminality,” he said.

The DIGP also thanked the unit for the excellent work in training professional dog handlers. He implored the canine unit personnel to continue working hard and coordinate with other specialists in order to defeat criminality because modern policing needs a modern canine unit.

Katsigazi further noted that canine is the way to go in modern policing, noting that it is a force multiplier in the fight against criminality. On his part, Dr Martin Mugume, the commandant police canine unit, informed the DIGP that the unit averagely collects about 15 crime scene exhibits everyday with the help of sniffer dogs.

The police canine unit is a specialized division of the force that works hand in hand with other departments to prevent, detect and investigate crime using track dogs. The unit also gives support functions to the anti-narcotics department by providing narcotics detection dogs at Entebbe international airport and other border points and explosive detection dogs to the directorate of counter terrorism.

To underline the importance of the unit in 2021, a total of 10,935 trackings were carried out compared to 9,185 trackings conducted in 2020. In that one-year period, 8,154 arrests were made. Most of the arrested quickly pleaded guilty while canine evidence was used against 2,931 persons taken to court, leading to 1,155 convictions.

Meanwhile, a total of 3,750 exhibits were recovered through the use of K9 to support investigations.