By Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA
BACOLOD CITY — The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) reported a decrease of 17.12 percent in its total crime volume from January 1 to December 31 last year.
Records showed that crimes declined by 583 from 3,406 in 2017 to 2,823 in 2018.
Index crimes, or crimes against person and property, dropped by 40.19 percent from 1,132 in 2017 to 677 last year.
These include the eight focus crimes of murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, car and motorcycle theft, which all decreased during the 12-month period.
Non-index crimes, or violations of special laws, decreased by 5.63 percent from 2,274 in 2017 to 2,146 in 2018.
Senior Supt. Francisco Ebreo, acting city police director, said in a press conference on Thursday the average monthly crime rate in Bacolod in 2018 was pegged at only 40.46 incidents compared to 48.82 in the previous year, which is reflected in the 17.12 percent decrease in the total crime volume.
Ebreo said this can be credited to the continuing operations against prevalent crimes, such as theft, physical injury, and robbery, which have a big impact on the community.
In 2018, theft cases decreased to only 261 from 450 in 2017 while incidents of physical injury dropped to 168 cases in 2018 from 253 in the previous year.
“We focused on these incidents, which we discussed weekly during our enhanced management police operations conference,” Ebreo said, adding that repeat offenders have also become the subject of police operations.
From January to December last year, the BCPO conducted 922 police-initiated operations, which were 62.9 percent higher than the 566 operations in 2017.
Ebreo also cited the support and cooperation of the city government and barangay officials in the anti-crime efforts of the police, as well as the increased public awareness of crime prevention.
