The Uganda Police Force (UPF) is looking for $62 million (about Shs 228 billion) to implement the third phase of the national CCTV project.
This revelation was made by the Undersecretary of the Police Aggrey Wunyi while appearing before the committee on Defence and Internal Affairs yesterday.
Wunyi said that the project is still at the design and budget solicitation stage.
The minister of state for Internal Affairs, gen David Muhoozi said the third phase seeks to close the gaps identified in the initial phases through increasing camera density to reduce blind spots, introduce body-worn cameras for police officers and enhance the capacity of the data centre to support growing storage and processing needs.
“The system has to keep running because UPF recruited qualified IT personnel and engineers to do maintenance of the system. Only continuous training on new upgrades of the system is required,” Muhoozi said.
He said the already implemented phase I and II of the national CCTV system is performing at an average ranging from 85 per cent to 95 per cent with some districts achieving 100 per cent performance.
Muhoozi added that the system has so far covered all the 19 Kampala Metropolitan policing divisions and all municipalities including Masaka, Mbarara, Ntungamo, Kabale, Kisoro, Arua, Gulu, Iganga and Jinja.
The other municipalities covered include Rukungiri, Bushenyi, Kasese, Fort Portal, Mubende, Mityana, Hoima, Masindi, Kitgum, Lira, Soroti, Moroto, Mbale, Kapchorwa, Tororo and Kamuli.
“Since implementation of the system in 2018, 42,417 operational and intelligence led incidents have been managed and 6,688 cases have undergone thorough investigation using the footage captured,” said Muhoozi.
The committee chairperson, Wilson Kajwengye, asked about the ability of the cameras to operate efficiently during power outages affecting different parts of the country.
“We have had incidences where the main grid goes off. Does that affect your cameras or do the cameras have capacity to keep running despite such challenges? Is this also the case throughout the country?” Kajwengye asked.
Peter Okeyoh from Bukooli Island tasked the UPF leadership to provide the measures being taken to vandalism of CCTV systems in the field, including during construction works like road maintenance.
Kagoma North MP, Kintu Brandon asked about the feasibility of the national CCTV system in incorporating footage captured private CCTV cameras.
“We have cameras installed in private places like supermarkets, bars, hotels or homes. How do you link them to your main CCTV centre in cases of crimes where you need to check their footage?” Kintu asked.
Muhoozi clarified that the national system is not connected to the private CCTV cameras.
“We only use volunteer information from those with personal cameras. We also do not have a legal regime that governs private cameras and how they can offer input in the national grid of cameras, because there are privacy issues involved,” Muhoozi said.
To tackle vandalism, Muhoozi noted that CCTV cameras are mounted on poles covered with spikes to deter persons from climbing to destroy the camera systems.
