Roxas: P10-M upgrade finally puts PCs in PCPs

ROXAS

MANILA, Philippines—Small police stations in Metro Manila, which mainly serve as watching posts and are ill-equipped to process complaints that entail lengthy documentation, will soon have a P10-million upgrade starting with the installation of personal computers, according to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.

These PCPs or police community precincts are the smallest organizational unit of the Philippine National Police, with 159 of them in the capital alone.

“Right now, when you go to PCPs to report a complaint, you will be referred instead to a (bigger) police station where you can file the report,” Roxas explained during a visit to the Inquirer office Tuesday night.

Computer-generated code

But with computers, “people can go to any precinct connected to the system and lodge a complaint. An investigator can encode the facts of the case to the system. When finished, he can print out an IRF (incident report form) and give a copy to the complainant. It will contain a computer-generated code which the complainant can then use to follow up the case in any other PCP or police station connected online.”

VALMORIA

Director Carmelo Valmoria, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said PCPs were originally not intended to process complaints since they were not staffed by trained investigators. They were not even provided with a logbook, also known as a blotter, he added.

“They serve more as the base of policemen and barangay watchmen in a locality,” Valmoria said. “So there are really no investigators there. Some PCPs don’t even have telephones and can be reached only by two-way radios.”

The upgrade is part of the PNP’s Oplan Lambat, which stresses the importance of accurate data gathering and analysis as crime-fighting tools.

A total of P10 million has been allocated for the purchase of computers for PCPs in Metro Manila, Roxas said. At present, only police stations, district and regional headquarters have such basic office equipment, though some are still stuck with what Roxas called “analog” record-keeping systems.

Problem with analog

“The problem with this analog, handwritten blotter system is when the concerned investigator retires or gets transferred or promoted, it becomes difficult (for the next officer) to keep track of a case,” Roxas said.

Oplan Lambat aims to address the problem by connecting the police outposts with city, municipal, district and regional bases via the Internet, he added.

In line with the project, Valmoria said all 159 PCPs in Metro Manila would soon have telephone lines or wireless broadband connections.