With more police recruits, PNP plans to put up more police stations 

FALL IN New female PNP recruits scramble to assemble before being inducted to the police force in this file photo taken in 2022. —PHOTO courtesy of PNP

MANILA, Philippines — After recruiting over 6,000 personnel in 2023, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Tuesday that it is planning to put up more police stations to accommodate the recruits and enhance its security efforts for this year.

From the 1:500 ratio of cops per person, PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. said the recruitment lowered the ratio to 1:125.

“We will be supporting this with other administrative matters like getting funds from our budget this year to put up additional police stations, na standard para ‘di nakakahiya yung mga station natin and kasama na rin yung mga sasakyan,” Acorda said in an interview with Radyo Pilipinas.

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(We will build the standard once so they will be presentable, as well as the purchase of other assets such as vehicles.)

With the increasing cases of cybercrimes and scams, the top police official added that they also plan to improve their response capability by capacitating their regional offices and police stations through training and acquiring more body-worn cameras.

He pointed out that the PNP only has 2,756 devices — far from the ideal number of 45,000.

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“Although the court naman allows other devices for recording mas maganda yung nasa sistema yung hindi nade-delete hindi na-e-edit,” Acorda said.

(Although the court allows other devices for recording police operations, it is better if we have them in our system so they will not be deleted or edited.)