Can we have a Police Force where all citizens feel safe, protected and free to engage? Where the joke of a 5,000 note of Uganda shillings as a driving permit no longer makes sense? The answer is Digitalisation.
I have come across a number of cases publicly reported to Police through social media platforms. This is not the officially recorgnised form of reporting and I always advise victims to file cases at their nearest police stations if Police must take action. Some heed while others feel that Police will not do much. For some cases which go viral, Police picks interest, follows up and actually conducts thorough investigations which restores hope to the wananchi. The most recent scenario is that of the mabaati scandal which created a lot of buzz on social media triggering CID to take on investigations. Much is expected and must be done.
The bitter truth of this means that people feel more relieved and safe interacting with systems than the human face of the Police. They feel comfortable releasing their grievances, anger and unfair treatment when they take to social media, because perhaps, this is the only system available to them where they find empathy and humanness.
There is hope. On several occasions, senior police officials have highlighted the plan to digitalise. In the last edition of Police Habari, ACP Andrew K. Mubiru, the Ag. Director – Police Forensic Services revealed that the Uganda Police Force resolved to pursue a digital transformation strategy towards transforming all underlying manual business processes to their digital equivalent in a phased manner. He also suggested that a citizen-centric approach ought to be adopted through a deliberate process referred to as design thinking which seeks to redefine problems to identify alternative solutions. This puts a human face in between technology and the Uganda Police Force which makes it a great innovation.
I installed the UPF Mobi app and I want to remove it! It is a good innovation but should be updated regularly, and equipped with more functionalities to be a must-have for all citizens of Uganda. It must be made as interactive as possible so that citizens feel the zeal to keep checking on it all the time, receiving important notifications, notices, advisory, and updates. For example, when a case is reported through the app, the user should be given a tracking code to keep track of what is going on until it is closed. This way, citizens will feel the presence of Police and grow their confidence and trust in the institution.
Digital has transformed our social behaviour. We find it better and more convenient to interact with systems than Humans. And the reason is simple; the system will not hold a service to go out for lunch, or ask for a bribe to offer the service. I am a victim of this disorder. I had been reluctant to register a company because of the scare of many physical processes involved until recently when I received information from URSB about the new Online Business Registration System (OBRS). With this system, I registered a company from the comfort of my computer and had all documents filed and signed without a single visit to the URSB offices. The process was seamless, tireless and most importantly, extremely affordable. Similar systems have been witnessed in Passport application, PPDA’s electronic Government Procurement (eGP) among others. Bino byetwagala!
Heard about UgHub? Under the National Information Technology Authority (NITA), the UgHub project was completed and deployed to integrate different MDA systems in order to enable seamless data sharing. According to NITA on their website, the system has so far onboarded a total of 106 entities (48 public, 58 private). The website further reveals that this project is entirely hosted within the government of Uganda data centre. It has the capability to integrate any system regardless of the technology it runs on and gives full control to every entity in managing their respective services and accessibility.
With digitilisation and NITA’s system integration agenda, police can quickly and easily retrieve information on people of interest to support and expedite investigations. This comes with immense benefits; less human interaction, time-saving, efficiency, reliability, fast decision making and consequently reduced corruption rates.
Real-life case scenario; the camera system that Police uses to monitor vehicles driving past the set speed limit should immediately issue an EPS Ticket (digitalise) as opposed to the current manual system where the officers manning these cameras manually enter records to issue tickets. This would mean that there is strictly no haggling between offenders and the officers in uniform. This also means more revenue collected from the offenders on the side of the Government, but also a reduction of careless drivers thereby reducing the number of accidents on our roads. The citizens are calling! Please digitise and digitilise.
