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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Monday, May 1, 2017
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BACOLOD City – City councilors want to curb crimes in public markets.
Police officers must be detailed in each to avert any sort of wrongdoing 24/7, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) said.
“Theft, robbery, shoplifting, vandalism, use or sale of illegal substances/drugs” are “common” in public markets, the SP said in a resolution.
Police presence at the public markets “is what counts in the heightened battle against criminality,” it said.
Officers must make rounds at the Burgos, Central and Libertad public markets and the Vendors’ Plaza, said the SP.
Six police officers shall work on shifts, with two officers per shift, explained Councilor Bartolome Orola, author of the resolution.
Day shift, or “first shift,” shall be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the swing shift, or “second shift,” from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and the night/graveyard shift, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., Orola said.
Roving officers will “not only deter crime [but] also create a feeling of safety and security among people in the city,” said Orola.
Patrolling the markets must be an “essential part of police routine” to prevent lawlessness, the SP said. “Criminality thrives in the absence of security.”
This was not the first time the SP asked the police to patrol the public markets. It passed a similar resolution in 2014.
Deploying officers to markets is part of the local government’s effort to address disorder in such public places “which aggravates traffic and market congestion,” a news release from city hall quoted El Cid Familiaran as saying.
Uniformed officers must respond to any emergency or untoward incident that may happen at the markets, said Familiaran, then chairman of the city council’s committee on police security and jail management and penology.
According to Familiaran, the presence of police officers at the public markets “will not only ward off criminal elements but safeguard vendors and market goers as well.”/PN
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