BACOLOD City – The city needs more police personnel.
Acting Mayor El Cid Familiaran, who is the chairman of the City Advisory Council for Police Transformation and Development (CACPTD), said they requested 542 more police officers from the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
The CACPTD is a strategic adviser made for the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO).
It is tasked to provide “independent and external perspectives of policing toward the realization of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Peace and Order Agenda for Transformation and Upholding of the Rule of Law Plan 2030.”
Familiaran said a June 26 resolution stating the request was submitted to PRO-6 head Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao.
The resolution cited a 2016 census showing that Bacolod has a population of 592,591. It added that the police-to-population ratio must be 1:922.
Familiaran said with such, Bacolod needs 1,185 police officers – or an additional 542 personnel based on the current number of police officers in the city.
Right now, the BCPO has 643 uniformed personnel, which are composed of 36 commissioned officers and 607 noncommissioned officers.
This was presented during the second CACPTD meeting last month, Familiaran said.
Academe representative to the CACPTD May Bautista said the additional police personnel are needed to keep the momentum of the BCPO in warding off crimes in the city.
The crime clearance and crime solution efficiency rates of the BCPO increased this June.
BCPO data showed that the crime clearance rate went up 5.27 percent – from 73.52 percent in June last year to 78.79 percent in June this year.
The crime solution rate, meanwhile, increased 4.05 percent – from 70.4 percent to 74.46 percent, the BCPO data added.
Crime clearance rate is the percentage of cleared cases out of the total number of crime incidents handled by law enforcement agencies for a given period of time, according to the PNP.
A case can be considered “cleared” when at least one of the offenders has been identified, there is sufficient evidence to charge the offender and the offender has been charged before the Prosecutor’s Office or any court of appropriate jurisdiction.
Crime solution rate, on the other hand, is the percentage of solved cases out of the total number of crime incidents handled by law enforcement agencies for a given period of time.
Solved cases are like cleared cases except that the offender must be taken under the custody of law enforcement agencies./PN
