Criminals up north, beware.
As a preventive against crime, the Northern Police District has begun concentrating its police officers in identified crime-prone areas in the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela (Camanava).
Superintendent Ferdinand del Rosario, NPD public information officer, told the Inquirer that the mobilization was a directive from the National Capital Region Police Office to bring down the number of crimes in Metro Manila.
“For the Police Integrated Patrol System, or PIPS, as we call it, we mobilize all our forces from Masco [Motorized Anti-street Crime Operatives] and other groups, and deploy them in areas that have shown a high incidence of crime,” Del Rosario said.
In the Camanava area, these include Bagong Silang and Monumento in Caloocan City.
The newly deployed police officers are looking out for possible perpetrators of street crimes, and crimes against property and persons, since these are the most common in north Metro, Del Rosario said.
After one month, statistics from crime-prone areas will show if adjustments have to be made.
If there are indications of any decrease in crime incidents, then the troops are retained. If not, additional troops are deployed.
“We want to maximize the use of our human resources for crime prevention,” Del Rosario explained.
The deployment of a part of the NPD’s 2,000-strong police force is on top of the patrol of local police officers already being conducted in the crime-prone areas.
Last year, the NPD began deploying a 12-man bike patrol unit to address the rising number of crime cases on narrow streets and alleys, which are not readily accessible to mobile patrol cars and police motorcycles.