Victims’ refusal to report crimes has made cops’ job difficult—Purisima
PNP Director General Alan Purisima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Seven out of 10 victims of crimes do not report their ordeal to the police, making it difficult to totally stop crimes, said Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Alan Purisima, citing a survey done in 2012.
Purisima, who called a press conference on Wednesday to answer criticism that the police failed to stem worsening criminality in the country, said difficulties aside, the Philippine National Police has been making progress in its fight against criminality.
He said public perception about the worsening peace and order situation nationwide was brought about by the PNP’s efforts to implement “true crime reporting.”
Increased crime reports, however, did not indicate the failure of the police to arrest criminals, Purisima said, adding that he was satisfied with the performance of the 150,000-strong force since he took over the helm of the PNP in December 2012.
On the criticism that the PNP failed to implement effective anti-crime programs, he said: “It’s not true. Actually, we have instituted policies to improve our delivery of services to the people.”
“But changes and improvements in the PNP would not happen overnight,” he stressed.
“We have introduced policies aimed at encouraging victims to report the crimes they’ve experienced to help the police thwart similar offenses from happening in the future,” he said, answering criticism hurled against him by Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza.
Atienza earlier called on the PNP chief and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas to resign for their failure to address the worsening criminality.
Purisima said Atienza might have been “misinformed” about the reforms he had initiated in the police force, including the hiring of additional civilian employees to help the PNP attain the ideal police to population ratio of 1:500.
“What we are doing is to improve police presence in crime-prone areas,” he said.
He explained that crimes could occur if three factors were present — the motive, the means and opportunity.
While the police could carry out operations to deprive criminals of the means or instruments and opportunity to commit crimes, Purisima said the PNP could not predict criminals’ motives.
