Office-based cops deployed to help patrol metro streets

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA—From offices to the streets.

In a bid to address criminality in Metro Manila, the Philippine National Police headquarters pulled out on Wednesday 100 of its uniformed personnel in administrative offices to augment street patrols in the National Capital Region.

The new patrollers will be deployed across the metropolis “in specific areas during identified periods of the day based on crime statistics” and the “tactical decision” of the National Capital Region Police Office, said Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, executive officer of the PNP directorate for personnel and records management, at the deployment ceremonies at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Gaerlan said the deployment was on orders of PNP Director General Alan Purisima and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. “NCRPO is a priority because we have here the major crime incidents, and majority of the population and economic activity,” Gaerlan said.

Gaerlan said the deployment was temporary until the training of new police recruits is completed.

Earlier, the NCRPO announced it would be deploying nearly 900 new recruits to crime-prone areas later this month, though the recruits would have to undergo further evaluation to determine if they qualify for permanent positions.

Gaerlan said “the whole PNP” was short of personnel if the ideal police-civilian ratio of 1:500 were to be followed. “In the NCRPO, there are more or less 18,000 personnel for 12 to 15 million people. It’s actually only half [of 18,000] because they operate on a daytime-nighttime shift,” Gaerlan said.

Gaerlan expressed hope that the ongoing recruitment of 7,369 non-uniformed PNP personnel would help address the shortage of street patrollers.

“The objective is to replace uniformed personnel in administrative office work so [the uniformed personnel] can be deployed to the streets,” Gaerlan said.

In the meantime, “those left behind in the offices will have to work double time. We are once again calling on the dedication of our personnel,” Gaerlan said.