PNP urges petty crime victims to seek help

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police is working hard to convince 70 percent of victims of petty crimes to seek police assistance.

PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima said the PNP is still working to convince victims of petty crimes, like snatching and pickpockets to seek police assistance and allow law enforcers to address them.

Purisima said petty criminals are emboldened and continue their illegal activities victimizing innocent persons with their hard earned money and belongings if their crimes go unreported.             

“We would like to achieve 100 percent crime reporting. Before, we found out through a survey that about 70 percent of petty crime victims opted not to report crimes. We hope they will report so we act on them,” Purisima said. “We would like to address these crimes.”

Purisima was referring to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey commissioned by the PNP and conducted from Dec. 8 to 11, 2012 that showed 71 percent of crime victims opted not to report the crimes for various reasons, as most of them considered the incident to be “too small a thing,” others believed “no police action (or) nothing would be done” and the police station is too far.

The survey also showed that six out of 10 Filipinos were satisfied with the performance of the PNP, which garnered an all-time high 50 percent net satisfaction rating.              

The survey was conducted a month before the controversial Atimonan rubout and the series of crimes implicating some members of the police force.

Purisima said the PNP has commissioned the Public Safety Mutual Benefit Fund, Inc. (PSMBFI), to determine the present situation and possible solution to crimes, including illegal drugs.

The PNP chief used the result of the December 2012 survey to order a thorough audit of police blotters to allow the PNP leadership to see the real picture of peace and order situation in the country.

Purisima has ordered the relief of a number of police chiefs for alleged under reporting of crime statistics.

He said the auditing of police blotters is part of his administration’s thrust of Serbisyong Makatotohanan Program and would determine who among police officers doctored the police records to get good points in crime prevention and crime solution efficiency.

“We are seeking the help of the people to report even the smallest crimes to allow the police to include them in the statistics in analyzing crime trends. We need the type and the time the crimes happened to effectively deploy policemen... that is the very reason why we have this data,” said Purisima.