By: Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – Crimes in Negros Occidental decreased by 7.04 percent from January to June 2019.
This was revealed by Police Major Edison Garcia, public information officer of Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) in a press briefing at the Nocppo headquarters here Tuesday, July 2.
Garcia said 1,386 incidents were recorded this year, compared to last year’s 1,491 cases, or a decrease of 105 incidents.
Garcia said most crimes were drug-related, since the influence of illegal drugs usually triggers a person to commit a crime.
For the eight focus crimes or crimes against persons and properties, Nocppo recorded a 27 percent decrease from 624 cases in 2018 to 456 incidents in 2019.
The highest number of cases among the eight focus crimes this year is physical injuries with 104; murder, 82; theft, 54; rape, 44; homicide, 27; robbery, 26; motornapping, 8; and carnapping, 2.
The cases of seven focus crimes decreased this year, except for carnapping which increased by 2 (200 percent), compared to zero incident in 2018.
Meanwhile, Garcia said that crime clearance efficiency (CCE) increased by 4.87 percent from 80.42 percent in 2018 to 85.28 percent in 2019.
Garcia said CCE means all cases were filed against those identified suspects, though they were not arrested.
For the crime solution efficiency (CSE), Garcia said there is an increase of 10.82 percent, from 62.71 percent in 2018 to 72.73 percent in 2019.
“This means that all suspects were arrested and charged for their crimes,” he added.
Garcia said the reduction on the crime volume this year was attributed to the sustained implementation of the provincial police office’s Integrated Patrol Deployment Plan (IPDP) and Enhanced Managing Police Operations (EMPO).
Through the series of conferences, intervention of all units, and additional deployment of personnel for crime prevention, we were able to lower the crime incidents in the province, he added.
