CCPO to form team to check response to 'Text a Crime'

The Cebu City Police Office will create a team to check if police stations have acted on complaints received through the "Text A Crime" program.

Cebu City Police acting director, Supt. Melvin Gayotin yesterday said his office is still finalizing the composition of the team whose main duty is to check the compliance of the police stations where concerns received through the city police text line were forwarded to.

The move of Gayotin is to show that he is serious in the compliance of the directive issued by Police Regional Office-7 chief, Supt. Silverio Alarcio.

Alarcio directed Gayotin to implement the "Text a Crime" program where concerned residents can report any information to the police relative to operations of illegal gambling, illegal drugs and other forms of criminality.

The public may raise concerns through mobile phone number 0921-4931616.

Gayotin said he received information that some text complaints received by the operations section that were passed on to the concerned police stations weren't addressed reportedly because of the lack of personnel and vehicles.

As such, the city police director wants to know if these police stations followed the directive.

Gayotin is now finalizing the creation of the said reaction unit that will most likely be composed of four to six men that will act on all text complaints received from the operations section of the CCPO.

The team will be divided into two shifts to cover 24 hours of the day. The men will be picked from operations section's ranks and will be provided with their own vehicle.

"Mao ni silay mo-counter check kung unsa kapaspas ug kung moresponde ba ang atong mga police stations, kining atong textline man gud kinahanglang maka-react ta dayon,"Gayotin explained.

The team is directly under direct supervision of the operations section that will answer only to him, Gayotin said.

Gayotin explained that there were times that police stations could not send men to respond to particular text complaints because some of the policemen are working in other cases or because of the lack of transportation.

The official revealed that there are at least four police stations to date that have no patrol cars, but did not name them. These police stations Gayotin said rely only on barangay patrol cars in their areas.

When asked about the possibility of overlapping in jurisdictions, Gayotin explained that the city police have their own responsibilities especially those assigned at the police hotline.

The Crime Suppression Unit is tasked to respond to armed persons and provide security to the warrant servers. Ordinary alarms are for the Mobile Patrol Group, while the Special Weapons And Tactics is for bomb threats and higher degree of alarms that need police assistance. - Edwin Ian Melecio and Jose P. Sollano