BAGUIO CITY – A report from the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) showed that crime incidents in the city is decreasing for the first five months of the year, except for February, primarily because of the heightened police operations coupled with the vigilance of the public.
Senior Superintendent George D. Daskeo, BCPO acting city director, said there has been a significant decrease of 10.6 percent equivalent to 23 index crimes during the whole Month of May compared to the preceding month of April.
He added non-index crimes are also decreasing which could be attributed to the improved law enforcement and the compliance of the public to peacekeeping initiatives among other interventions of the local police force.
“Index crimes for 2016 from January to May decreased by 32.3 percent or by 635 crime incidents compared to the same period last year. The most prevalent crime which is theft increased by 20.6 percent or by 215 incidents,” Daskeo stressed.
The police official reported that the most remarkable recorded decrease were the cases of physical injuries which dropped by 59.2 percent or a total of 386 incidents compared to the same period last year while carnapping cases, especially of motorcycles also decreased by 21 incidents or 55.3 percent.
According to him, the peacekeeping interventions that were put in place by the BCPO were the profiling and subsequent arrest of minor suspects, the inter-linkages of police stations of their profiled suspects, the sectorized deployment of personnel for the service of warrants of arrest, the deployment of police personnel to the identified hot spots pursuant to the crime clock, the activation of the Neighborhood Watch and the engagement with bar owners for the strict implementation of curfew hours.
He said the BCPO also intensified the Oplan Tambuli and the distribution of the appropriate information and education campaign materials for every crime category among others.
Daskeo revealed the BCPO also engaged the services of force multipliers from the different barangays because they are the ones who know the people in their respective areas of jurisdiction, thus, they have no problem in the profiling if identified suspects in the various crimes committed in the different parts of the city.
He expressed his gratitude to the city government, the barangays and the local residents for their continuous cooperation and support to the implementation of upscaled peacekeeping initiatives and necessary interventions to make the city a better place to live, work, study and do business.
He appealed to the public for their unrelenting and uncompromising support to the different peacekeeping initiatives that were put in place in order to further improve the peace and order situation in the city’s 128 barangays.
By Dexter A. See
