According to the Annual Crime Police and Traffic Safety report 2022 released on Wednesday, criminals made off with property or money worth Shs859b last year, leaving their victims in a state of loss. Unfortunately, the police were only able to recover a mere 6.9 percent (Shs59.5b) of the property or money that was stolen during that period.
The report also reveals that the amount of money lost in crime last year is as big as the entire police budget (Shs876b) for this financial year. All offences where criminals made financial benefits have continued to increase, and the Inspector General of Police, Martins Okoth-Ochola, attributed the increase in general crime to the opening up of the economy.
“In 2022, we note that there was an 18 percent increase in the number of crimes reported to police from 196,081 cases reported in 2021 to 231,653 cases mainly due to the full opening of the economy after the Covid-19 lockdown and growing confidence to report crime to police,” IGP Ochola said on Wednesday.
Losses due to crime have been rising over the years and they haven’t been given public attention until 2021 when this publication reported about them, showing the 2020 losses being at 11.7 trillion, which caused discomfort among senior police officers.
In the 2021 crime report, the statistics about the losses were not included in what the director of Criminal Investigations, Tom Magambo, an Assistant Inspector General of Police, attributed to disagreements on how their statisticians arrived at the loss figures. But police resumed publishing the losses due to crime in last year’s crime report, which was released on Wednesday.
Theft cases rose from 43,583 reported incidents in 2021 to 61,508 cases in 2022, representing a 41 percent rise, while obtaining money by false pretences grew from 8,634 cases to 10,652 incidents, a 23 percent increase in the same period.
Police statistics show that cases of physical theft of cash, scams online, fraud in banks, and companies are on the rise. A quarter (Shs224.9b) of the total loss was under the offense of causing financial loss, the report shows. The money was lost in 55 cases that were investigated by the police, and only one person was taken to court over causing financial loss in the same period. The police have been able to recover Shs860m in the same period.
Obtaining money by false pretense contributed the second-highest loss of Shs170b. Of the 10,652 incidents of obtaining money by false pretence, less than a quarter of them have been taken to court. Police records show that the State secured 267 convictions. The rest of the cases are either still under inquiry, or they were submitted to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The prevalence of cases of obtaining money by false pretence has been attributed to weak penalties. According to the Penal Code Act, most offenses of false pretence attract less than five years of jail time on conviction, regardless of the amount of money or goods the convicts have stolen.
In the same period, Shs51b cash was stolen while Shs392m bank cash-in-transit was stolen. Bank cash-in-transit used to be a target on highways, but private security agencies, insurance companies, and banks have tightened measures to protect their funds, including procuring armoured bullion vans with tracking devices that transport their money.
Criminals made Shs23b in forgeries and uttering false documents, and only Shs9.1m was recovered. Fraud in banks and corporate companies wasn’t as high last year as it was.
However, the police remain concerned about the increasing prevalence of cybercrime, with losses totaling Shs19.2b reported in the same period. This represents a 10.8 percent increase in cybercrime cases, despite efforts by law enforcement agencies to clamp down on this type of crime.
The police report suggests that the rise in cybercrime is due to the increasing use of technology in our daily lives. As more people move their activities online, cybercriminals are finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in systems and networks to carry out their criminal activities.
One of the challenges facing law enforcement agencies is the difficulty of tracking down cybercriminals, who can operate from anywhere in the world. This makes it hard for the police to investigate and prosecute these types of crimes, and the low recovery rate of only Shs16.7m highlights the difficulty of recovering stolen funds in cybercrime cases.
Another concern highlighted in the police report is the ready market for stolen items, particularly electronics, in Uganda and neighboring countries. This creates a lucrative market for thieves and encourages the commission of more crimes.
The police have identified several areas where they plan to focus their efforts to reduce crime, including digitalization, staffing, skilling, tooling, budget, application of science in investigations, exhibit management, and community policing. However, budget cuts mean that many of these issues will not be addressed in the next financial year.
The police report highlights the increasing prevalence of crime in Uganda, with criminals making off with property or money worth Shs859b in the last year alone. The low recovery rate of only 6.9 percent highlights the challenges facing law enforcement agencies in recovering stolen property and funds. While the police have identified several areas where they plan to focus their efforts to reduce crime, budget cuts mean that many of these issues may not be addressed in the next financial year.
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