Design and Evaluation of a Blockchain-Based Information System for Improving the Integrity, Traceability and Accountability of Police Case Records in Uganda
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Police case records constitute a critical information asset because they support reporting, investigation, supervision, evidence management and onward justice processes. The Uganda Police Force (UPF) continues to manage substantial volumes of reported cases: the 2025 Annual Crime Report records 196,405 cases reported to Police, of which 115,301 were submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and 79,291 reached court, while the 2024 report recorded 218,715 reported cases, including 90,663 still under inquiry at the time of reporting. These volumes create a continuing requirement for accurate, traceable and accountable case records. Earlier KIU research addressed centralized criminal databases and traffic case records, while UPF has reported the development of crime records systems and, historically, an intention to develop an electronic case-tracking system. The unresolved research opportunity is therefore not only computerization but strengthening the integrity and auditability of case transactions across a distributed policing environment. This article proposes and sets out an empirical evaluation of a permissioned blockchain-based information system for police case records in Uganda. The study is guided by information systems success and sociotechnical perspectives and uses a design-science-oriented mixed-methods case-study approach. A prototype records cryptographic hashes and transaction metadata on a permissioned ledger while keeping sensitive case documents in controlled off-chain storage, and the evaluation examines data integrity, traceability, accountability, access control, usability, performance and perceived organizational feasibility. The study also examines the implications of Uganda's Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019 for blockchain design, particularly data minimization, security, retention and the handling of personal data. The article contributes a Uganda-specific information-systems framework for blockchain-enabled police case.
Author: ROLLAND, NUWAGABA
Institution: Kampala International University
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225635980