170 District/Division Police Commanders –DPCs who completed a three months’ refresher course last week have been sent on a 14-days leave as they await redeployment by the police leadership.
Former Deputy Inspector General of Police the late Lt Gen Paul Lokech sent the commanders to Olilim Counter-Terrorism Police Training School in Katakwi District in May to equip them with new skills in observing human rights during their day-to-day operations, swifter response to emergencies and building community policing.
Lokech ordered them before departure, to hand over their offices to Officers In-charge of the various stations, who, from the time were to serve as acting DPCs.
Now, CP Fred Enanga the Police Spokesperson says the police leadership has resolved to first assess the performance of each of the DPCs during training in order to find where each one suits.
Some of the DPCs had already been replaced in the reshuffle by Lokech two weeks before he died. The decision to retrain DPCs was concluded during a meeting with DPCs and president Yoweri Museveni at Entebbe State House in April. Museveni reportedly raised a number of issues that rotated around chaotic scenes registered during political party primaries and general elections.
The issues highlighted included lack of intelligence gathering techniques which saw some political groups successfully organize protests, failure to brief juniors on operation procedures which saw them shooting and injuring civilians during the election period while other DPCs were accused of hobnobbing with groups evicting people.