Thursday, October 16, 2008 Editorials: Task Force Motorcycle idea
THERE should be a way to stop crimes perpetrated by persons riding in motorcycles, or the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 will continue to top the list of regional offices in the country where these incidents are happening most.
This point should not be lost on the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), which reported 147 incidents involving motorcycle-riding criminals from January to August this year, with 102 cases remaining unsolved.
The crimes included robberies on persons and shooting incidents.
Special unit
For PRO 7 Chief Ronald Roderos, the hope is that the creation of a Task force Motorcycle will effectively address the problem and lower the number of crimes involving motorcycle riding persons to at least less grievous levels.
One advantage of having such a task force is concentration, meaning that a police unit will now focus limited resource and intelligence gathering capabilities on the problem, aside from leading operations once such crimes are perpetrated.
Besides, people can now have a specific unit to blame once the problem worsens, which of course could be unfair to incoming members of the task force.
Not easy
In fairness to the police, there is admittedly a high degree of difficulty in solving this problem because of several factors, like the proliferation of motorcycles (which makes for easy availability and difficulty in identifying the vehicles used).
Motorbike-riding criminals also have the usual advantage of deciding when and where to strike and to map out escape routes, conscious of the inherent advantage of bikes over four-wheeled vehicles.
It is in this sense that the job of a Task Force Motorcycle is not easy.
Urgency
Still, it is still too early to say whether this is the best solution to the problem or is just another knee-jerk reaction to something that has become obvious to the leadership of the Philippine National Police.
After Roderos announced the formation of the task force, a few more attacks by motorcycle-riding person occurred in Cebu City and in some towns in the province.
Which just shows the urgency of forming the unit and for it to immediately launch operations---and in the process give the public a chance to assess the validity of the idea of forming such a special unit.
