QC crime incidents decline

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula claimed yesterday that crime incidents have declined in the city following the intensified patrols and police visibility in crime-prones areas.

Gatdula reported to Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. that crimes against property had steadily declined from the start of November until the middle of December last year.

He said carjacking had been reduced by 55 per cent after 175 vehicles were stolen in 2006, compared to 312 carjacking incidents in 2005.

Gatdula said the improvement in the crime-prevention campaign can be attributed to the new concept and strategies implemented by the new management of the QCPD.

He said some of the concepts and strategies include the intensified visibility patrol in the streets through the D-A-D (Duty-Administrative-Duty) concept wherein a policeman renders two days patrol duty and in between those two days is "Admin Day" for mandatory inspection administrative, accounting and other non-patrol duties.

In this system, the policeman renders 40 hours of patrol duty for two succeeding weeks and administrative duties for 32 hours in the third week.

Gatdula said the "buddy-buddy" system was revised and now instead of only two policemen per team, three-man police units were deployed.

The QCPD chief revealed that high impact projects and special operations such as formulation of intelligence projects targeting organized crime groups and the campaign against wanted persons, creation of district/station task group, the "motorized Anti Street Crime Operatives" or MASCO" and the activation of passenger bus/jeepney marshals were also implemented.

Gatdula said the police also followed proper media handling of accomplishments that in one way or another would affect the operations of criminals.

The police have applied the "Tutok Bulabog" and "Oplan Pakitang Gilas" that are aimed to pre-empt the commission of crimes in the city, he said.

"With all these anti crime measures now implemented by the QCPD, I believe that the occurrence of crimes will be pre-empted and the peace and order situation in the city will improved," Gatdula said.