Friday, August 24, 2007 Seares: Robbers and cops By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
TWO bank robberies, only eight days apart, have set off mild panic in Metro Cebu---and questions like: How secure are businesses against robbers? Can the police catch them at all?
Local officials and PNP heads are shrewd. They have made capitalists defensive by exposing lapses in protecting their own businesses: banks, offices, shops, or stores.
Business owners feel inadequate and guilty. Their noses are rubbed on failures: to hook up with an alarm system, hire enough security guards who are well-trained and have no past crime record, and tap guards only for guard duty, not using them to open doors or serve coffee.
Relocation of blame is going on here. Or maybe not: just emitting smoke to confuse us about whose job it is to keep peace and order.
Hunting the perps
I'm not saying the citizens need not help. They need to support, cooperate, and all that jazz.
But so far, there has been no talk or move about improving police intelligence, response to robbery in progress, dragnets and checkpoints, ambushes or traps, and skill in hunting perpetrators.
The suspicion nags that the police can't beat the robbers in this game because some cops may be bedding with the enemy, as brains or accomplices.
That doesn't even shock people anymore. Robbers and cops can easily switch roles without skipping a beat.
The busting of a suspected group of police extortionists the other day tends to confirm what the public fears: the blurring of lines between police work and criminal work.
The man crying out "Holdup!" may be both a hood and a cop.
