Friday, May 30, 2008 Police turn to council on need for spy cams
THE CEBU City Police Office will coordinate with the City Council on the police’s appeal to possibly come up with an ordinance requiring establishments to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras as part of security measures against robbers.
City Police Chief Patrocinio Comendador, in a news conference yesterday, said he will check with the City Council if a proposed ordinance has been filed about it because the council and Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who also chairs the Police Coordinating Advisory Council, are already aware of the “predicament.”
Issues
He said every time a robbery occurs, issues on security measures implemented by establishments are always raised.
The latest incident in Cebu City was last May 24’s twin robberies of adjacent jewelry stores along Magallanes St. in Barangay Ermita where the robbers, estimated to be at least eight of them, were captured in a security camera installed in one of the stores.
The robbers ran away with more than P13 million worth of assorted jewelry. Two of the eight robbers identified as Emmanuel Alemboyong Caraballe and Baby Lapinid Toring were arrested in a pension house less than an hour after the incident. Complaints have been filed against them and the other unidentified perpetrators.
Comendador said the cameras are very important in the investigation because it gives the police leads on the modus and identities of the robbers.
Requirement
Stressing the importance to invest on security, Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ronald Roderos said during last Tuesday’s “Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis” that local government units in urban areas in Central Visayas should come up with an ordinance requiring establishments like banks, pawnshops and money-lending firms to set up security cameras.
Once an ordinance is approved, the establishments would not be issued business permits if they fail to comply with the requirement.
THE PRO 7 chief said that this way, the establishment’s local branches, particularly banks, can ask for funding from its central office for the cameras. (JST)
