Thursday, April 26, 2007 Editorial: Scalawags in CCPO
DISMAY should not only be what Acting Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador feels with the surfacing of alleged scalawag cops in the city.
Concern is the better feeling, or what about angry?
Having two cops accused of escorting a suspected big-time drug pusher is bad; seeing another two cops arrested in an entrapment for alleged extortion is worse.
The number of cops linked could mean that corrupt acts are pervasive in CCPO.
Been there
Of course, the public would be fooling itself if it believes that scalawag cops are not roaming the city, like what they are doing in other parts of the country.
They have always been here, committing objectionable acts like collecting tong, extorting money from those arrested, etc.
What differs from time to time is the extent of the objectionable acts being committed and the brazenness with which these are being done.
Challenge
The recent incidents involving CCPO cops are therefore a challenge for Comendador, who has become police chief for only a few months.
His being new to the post, though, can be taken in a positive sense.
It places him in a better position to act on the matter than his predecessor, a long-time acting chief who seemed to have lost the feel of his people because of familiarity.
One thing going for Comendador is that he seemed to have succeeded in shutting off the culture of vigilantism that captivated CCPO personnel the past few years.
Proof of that is that vigilante killings, which bedeviled the city before he came in, have either stopped or have become few and far between.
That means he has the capacity to reinstitute and strengthen traditional means of fighting criminality and to instill discipline in the CCPO ranks.
Signs
And there are signs he is willing to do just that.
In response to the incidents involving policemen, he has ordered that any covert operation planned should be cleared by him and by station commanders.
Yesterday, a surprise drug test was conducted on members of the miscellaneous team and other cops involved in operations against suspected drug pushers.
Those are good initial steps whose goal hopefully will be pursued to its desired end.
