Crimes in MM down by 7.14 percent from Jan – Sept 2007

By Ronron
October 18, 2007

Crimes in Metro Manila went down by 7.14 percent for the period January to September this year, compared to the same period last year, a police official said Thursday.

According to National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Geary Barias, the decrease from 6,371 incidents last year to 5,972 this year is attributed to their “crime prevention operations,” particularly their night-watch operations and increased police visibility during daytime.

“The NCR is the most peaceful (region) in the entire country,” Barias claimed after citing the figure.

Among the specific crimes that Barias cited are theft, which went down from 2,302 incidents to 2,064; robbery, from 2,110 to 1,939; murder, from 366 to 330; homicide, from 308, to 218; rape, from 217 to 203; and, carnapping, from 850 to 516.

On the other hand, Barias admitted that cases of slight physical injuries increased during the same period, although he was not immediately prepared to cite the statistics.

“Because we have downloaded (some policemen to the districts), we hope we can sustain this trend,” Barias said, referring to last week’s assignment of over 500 cops to the five police districts in Metro Manila for street patrolling.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. had earlier promised to assign 90 percent of the entire police force to the field and retain the remaining 10 percent to offices in line with the PNP’s duty of “serving and protecting the community.”

In a related development, Barias disclosed their plan to merge next month the security cameras of the NCRPO with those of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to further strengthen their anti-criminality campaign.

Barias said MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando had already agreed in principle the integration of the NCRPO’s 56 cameras with the 200 cameras of the MMDA.

“Chairman Fernando is okay with the integration of their system with ours. We can use their system for our crime prevention campaign too,” Barias said.

The NCRPO installed its 56 cameras last August in various areas in Metro Manila as part of the security measure for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting in the country./DMS