Crimes down by 44.6 pct while WV was on lockdown

By Jennifer P. Rendon

One good thing that the community lockdowns against COVID-19 brought is the reduction of crimes in the country.

In Western Visayas, the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) claimed that crime volume dropped by 44.6 percent, from 6,982 cases to 3,868 incidents between March 17 and June 13, 2020.

The incidents include 2,672 for peace and order index while 1,196 for safety index crimes.

The two indices are the new categories in classifying crimes in lieu of index and non-index crimes.

Iloilo City registered the highest crime volume in Western Visayas at 1,166 cases; the provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental posted 775 crimes each; Capiz with 321; Aklan, 265; Bacolod City, 242; Antique, 224: and Guimaras, 100.

Iloilo province, on the other hand, registered the biggest drop in crime incidents at 53.17 percent while Capiz posted a 53.13 percent decline.

In a press conference Monday, Police Brigadier  General Rene Pamuspusan, Western Visayas police chief, said the region’s eight focus crimes – murder, homicide, robbery theft, physical injury, rape,  motornapping and carnapping – significantly decreased from 1,022 cases for the same period last year to only 568 incidents this year, or 55.57 percent decline.

All focus crime numbers decreased during that period.

No carnapping case was recorded while motor-napping was down by 74.28 percent.

Also recording a big drop was theft by 73.56 percent; robbery by 71.77 percent; rape by 50.31 percent; physical injury by 43.52 percent; homicide by 50 percent; when murder by 33.6 percent.

Pamuspusan said the biggest drop was posted when the region was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) at 63.93 percent.

During the general community quarantine (GCQ), the number of eight focus crimes dropped by 25.76 percent while it was at 48.68 percent during the modified GCQ.

For Pamuspusan, the significant decrease of crime statistics was a product of several factors.

These include the presence of the checkpoints through Quarantine Control Points (QCPs); strict implementation of curfew and liquor ban; 24/7 sustained patrol operation and police presence; vigorous implementation of the guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force; and the strong partnership of Joint Regional Task Force CV-Shield.