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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday January 13, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Police officers in this city must be detailed on streets, not in malls, the Sangguniang Panlungsod stressed.
The city council requested the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) to intensify visibility by deploying officers to the streets.
“The local government is determined to prevent crimes on streets and in schools and other public places,” the city council said in a resolution.
Bacolod “is among highly urbanized cities [in the Philippines] with the highest murder rates from 2010 to 2015,” the councilors claimed.
According to Councilor Caesar Distrito, author of the resolution, police officers on streets discourage criminals.
Officers are more needed on streets and in schools than in malls, where there are already security guards, said Distrito.
“[They] should patrol the city, particularly areas where there are a lot of people or where criminal activities usually take place,” he said.
Patrol operations can improve crime prevention, the councilor said, citing a 2015 Philippine National Police annual report. “Patrolling is so important that, without it, there is practically no policing to speak of.”
Distrito said police visibility means officers are the “first line of defense against crimes.”
Earlier Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, head of Task Force Bantay Negosyo, also asked the BCPO through the director Senior Superintendent Flynn Dongbo to increase visibility, especially at the downtown area.
Police have yet to identify the perpetrators of at least three recent crimes, including the robbery of a department store on Christmas Day where a Chinese national and a security guard were killed./PN
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