Uganda has for the past three years been taking part in the Police Station Visitors’ Week. Uganda first participated in the visits in 2009. The third edition of the PSVW was organized from 26^th to 30^th October, 2009. Twenty one (21) countries participated with more than 35 police organizations, and 61 partner organizations participating in the world. Nine Hundred and Ninety (990) police stations received more than 3500 citizens.

In Uganda, a total of 16 visitors including team leaders visited 12 police stations which were within the Kampala Metropolis. The visitors were recruited by HURINET-U under the auspices of the Police Reform and Accountability Project, which also coordinated the visit in Uganda. The essence of the events is to evaluate the degree to which a station is designed and operated to serve the public.

Why the Police Station Visitors’ Week?

To the Public:

• The PSVW promotes participatory measurement of police service to identify good practices and to assist police in improving their service accordingly.
• The visit also seeks to create transparency, dialogue, and respect between police and civilians, thereby encouraging the accountability of police to the citizens they serve in all parts of the world.
• It is also designed to strengthen the accountability of the police towards the citizens they serve.

To the Police Force:

• Participating in the Visitors Week increases their transparency, showing their willingness to identify problems and being able to make adjustments to the services delivered by the stations.
• Participation helps the police strengthen their public acceptance, the support and trust for their communities.

To the CSOs working in the Security Sector:

• Participation can also broaden their dialogue with police services. Upon request or by invitation, community organizations, NGOs and other civil society representatives can organize visits to police stations in order to learn more about the daily operations and highlight problems which make public – police relations difficult.
• The civil society can use the results to identify and acknowledge police stations with good working practices which can serve as an example for others to follow.

How are they carried out?

The visits are structured through a common protocol using a PSV kit designed to evaluate the degree to which a station is designed and operates to serve the public. . It is designed in such a way that allows each visitor to score their visiting police station in five aspects that has four questions each. Questions in the Kit address the following categories:

• Community orientation
• Physical conditions of the Police Stations
• Equal treatment of the public without bias based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, minority status or sexual orientation by and at the Police Stations
• Transparency and accountability within the station
• Detention conditions of the particular police station

Visitors are in groups of 3 – 8 people and are accompanied by a team leader, who is responsible for supervising the visit, helping team members to work well together and document the visit. At the conclusion of each visit, the team leader provides the results to Altus, using the special website created for this purpose and sending the original scoring sheets to Altus. Altus assembles the submission of results, audits the scores. All team leaders also write narrative reports after the visit to accompany and explain the team’s findings, and the impact of the visit on their understanding of police stations. This assists Altus to collate numerous valuable impressions of common citizens all over the world.

In 2009, the participating Police Stations were mainly from within the Kampala Metropolitan and these included Kiira, Jinja Road Police Station, Kireka Police Station, Seeta Police Station, Kyambogo Police station, Makerere University Police Station, Wandegeya Police station, Central Police Station, Kibuye Police Station, Kajjansi Police Station.

In 2009, the following three police stations received the highest scores among the 2009 police stations visited in Uganda with the following average scores

1. Wandegaye Police Station (74)

2. Kiira Police Station (65.5)

3. Kireka Police Station (61.5)

For further details, download the entire ‘Uganda Police Station Visitors Week: 26th to 30th October, 2009-Report of Results in Uganda’, Click Here.

For the Police Station Visitors’ Week in Africa: 18^th -24^th October 2010, Click Here.