I HAVE to commend Senior Superintendent Francisco Ebreo, acting director of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and its contingent of police officers.

According to Ebreo, 85 percent of the policemen assigned in police stations are deployed in the streets for visibility patrol.

In a study of police literature, the Minneapolis Police Department tested the impact of directed police patrols in crime hotspots at “hot times.”

Over a 10-month period, 55 experimental hotspots received twice as much police patrol as a similar number of control hotspots. The study found that crime and disorder reduced significantly in the experimental hotspots compared with the control areas.

This US study concluded that crime displacement tends not to happen with focused police activity in high-crime places and that the crime reduction benefits may even spread to the areas immediately surrounding the targeted locations—referred to in the literature as “diffusion of benefits.”

In the Bacolod context, that means Talisay and Silay in the north and Bago and Pulupandan in the south stand to benefit from Bacolod’s high visibility presence of its police force. It would be fantastic if Sun Star police beat reporters could come up from these cities’ police offices.

I appreciate Ebreo’s report, chockfull of data that are verifiable on the ground. You see them all over the place. In the malls, on the streets, hospitals, government buildings. At the Hall of Justice, they have become accepted fixtures.

Ebreo said the deployment of more cops in the streets helped reduce crimes in the city, with a decrease of 32.24 percent or 69 incidents compared to last year’s 214 cases from July 1 to 24.

BCPO has recorded 32 cases of index crimes this year compared to 78 incidents in 2017, with a drop of 58.97 percent. These are impressive stats.

More than deterring crimes, their high visibility can foster trust and gratitude of Bacolodnons. The PNP slogan “To Serve and to Protect” is no longer a gust of hot air, but a reality.

On the other hand, the fact that I lost my cellphones to thieves at the Bacolod plaza only last week indicates room for improvement.

After all, Police Station 1 is just across the crime scene. The police officers have identified suspects, indicating I wasn’t the first victim.

(bqsanc@yahoo.com)