THE Davao City Police Office (DCPO) Traffic Group sees the need for additional speed guns and police traffic personnel to efficiently address traffic congestion and violators in the city.
DCPO-Traffic Group Chief Superintendent Ernesto Castillo bared that of the four speed guns that was given to them by the Land Transportation Office (LTO), only two are functional.
"Actually ang na issue na speed gun sa DCPO is apat then 'yong functional is dalwa kaya medyo ang ating apprehension sa speed gun dalawang tao lang ang naghuhuli kaya medyo mahina na ngayon ang apprehension," Castillo said.
He added that there are only two personnel who are authorized to use the speed guns as the two others took on new assignments.
According to their accomplishment report, they apprehended 6,947 violators of the executive order (EO) 39 also known as the Davao Speed Limit Ordinance that was implemented starting October 29, 2013 to mitigate traffic incidents.
Under the ordinance, the speed limit sets a 30-kilometer per hour (kph) speed limit within the downtown area and 40 kph from Panacan Crossing to JP Laurel Avenue, from Ulas to Bolton Bridge, and from Ma-a Road to McArthur Highway. A 60 kph maximum speed is set from Calinan to Ulas Crossing, from Lasang to Panacan, from Sirawan to Ulas Crossing, and from CP Garcia Highway-McArthur Highway to Panacan.
For the number of personnel, meanwhile, Castillo bared that that they have insufficient number of traffic enforcers.
He revealed that their strength is only 80 persons which are not enough compared to the ideal number of more than 100 to immediately take action on traffic problems.
"Sa ngayon 80 lang kasi yong sa investigators namin. We have only 15 then kailangan natin more than traffic investigators para hindi mag congest sa kalasada kung magkaroon ng traffic kailangan three minutes or two minutes kailangan maalis na yong banggaan sa kalsada," he said.
He also said that residents of the city are already aware of the speed limit ordinance and most of the violators apprehended came from nearby areas.jcr