Police e-blotter launched

PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Police blotters coming from the National Capital Region will be going high-tech, as the NCRPO tests its e-blotter this September.

The move will make metro police records available to officers at the Philippine National Police Headquarters in Camp Crame, PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo said during the inauguration of the Center for Law Enforcement Studies (CLES) Building at Camp Crame Tuesday.

“Sa halip na mano-mano, magiging hi-tech [Instead of manual, it’s now going to be hi-tech],” said Bacalzo, adding that the records will be automatically available to the PNP Headquarters.

Bacalzo expressed hope that the service would eventually change for the better with the use of “relevant technology,” starting with the e-blotter.

Although the NCRPO will still be evaluating the e-blotter system for improvements, Bacalzo said that this would be secure and protected against hacking. He said that the e-blotter system was protected so that “hindi mabago ng sinuman yung entry [the entries cannot be changed by just anybody].”

But the e-blotter system was also meant to help police officials check on how efficient their officers were in addressing cases, said Bacalzo.

He said that by having access to the records, officers from the headquarters would be able to check how quickly police would respond to incidents and to track the progress of investigations.

He said that the force was targetting placing one computer for encoding police blotters in every metro station.

An officer will also be assigned to focus on encoding entries from the police blotter, Bacalzo added.