National Perspective’s Tom Malaba has been reporting on crime and crime prevention matters for over a decade. But like many of us, he had never quite come this close to a police patrol mission. We don’t mean that he had never been within a few inches of a patrol car.

But he had never taken time to spend three days with a patrol mission, to understand the details of how these missions are carried out, what kind of incidents the patrols respond to or what kind of challenges the officers face.

So in this second and last edition of our series on police patrols, Malaba brings us his experience of spending three days working with a group of police patrollers.

He trails the patrollers as they interact with the community on a sensitization trip.

His second day was highlighted by spending some time in the police control room at Central Police Station, Kampala, where all emergency calls are received and responded to.

But the most interesting part is that he actually became witness to police patrol action as they respond to a road accident in Kireka, just outside of Kampala.

In the three days, Malaba also gets to share in the challenges that such missions face. Some of the challenges apply to the work of the police, not only in Kampala, but across the country.

Have a good listen.