Despite various security reforms, policing in Uganda still bears the hallmarks of its colonial past.  During colonial times, the role of the police was to defend colonial interests often in blatant disregard of the human rights of the local population. This same authoritarian, oppressive machinery was maintained virtually intact by the post-independence governments of Uganda.

During the period of civil wars the police was relegated to the periphery and the subsequent governments often relied on the army to enforce their authoritarianism rather than the Police. This was the state of affairs inherited in 1986, by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government led by current President Yoweri Museveni.

Civilian policing in Uganda incessantly remains a sad tale of brutal police who are focused on protecting and serving the ruling regime. The police continue to be used by the government to crack down on political dissent and opposition by violently and brutally dispersing political rallies or demonstrations and other related right to assembly activities. The allegations of impunity by the public as against some officers, lack of internal democracy and accountability of civilian oversight abound.

Under the NRM system, there has been progress, however piecemeal, towards professionalizing of the general security sector including the Uganda Police Force. The planned professionalization included several transformation initiatives geared towards embedding a paradigm shift from regime policing to democratic policing (pro-people). The effort towards democratic policing included the community policing curriculum which has greatly improved the civilian-police relations in the community. The other moves towards reforming the police force include: the introduction of the police research and planning department in 1992; a separate police inspectorate in 1997; a community affairs department in 1998; a human rights desk and a complaints desk within the legal department in 1999.

Further, in 2007, a professional standards unit, now rolling out to regional levels was established to cater for professionalism in the police force, while the anti corruption department was established in year 2009 to deal with corruption. While there are lots of efforts advanced to reform the police force, there still gaps that need bridging. Consequently, in order to ensure an accountable and professional police force, there is need for supporting the police on these positive steps.

The repetitive history of incumbents using the police to clamp down on the opposition is a pervasive precedent that needs to be addressed if Uganda is to have a fully fledged democratic political transition. The situation warranted a platform bringing all different stake holders together to contribute to the reform of the police force from the largely regime policing to democratic policing that fronts the aspirations of the civilian population and not those of the state.

Resultantly, the Police Accountability and Reform Project was launched in 2007 with support from the Netherlands Embassy to the implementing local partner, Human Rights Network-HURINET-U.  HURINET-U executed the project with support from a working group comprised of seven (7) member non-governmental organizations as indicated in Annex ‘A’ but briefly they included ACODE, FHRI, FIDA-U and UPAF. The major aim of the project is/was to specifically contribute to the reformation process of the Uganda Police Force.