A TOTAL of 54 policemen from the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Western Visayas were added to the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) in Bacolod City effective Monday, November 11.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Pico, spokesperson of BCPO, said the 54 policemen arrived in BCPO on Monday and will be deployed to the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG).
"It's a good news and big help for us to help our police force here," he said.
Pico added that the newly assigned policemen will be deployed to various police stations to be part of the alert team, investigators and beat patrollers after three months.
In October, about 200 policemen, who were part of the augmentation personnel from PRO-Western Visayas, were also directed to stay in Bacolod while they wait for their schooling on anti-insurgency.
In 2018, the City Advisory Council for Police Transformation and Development (CACPTD) in Bacolod City approved a resolution requesting additional polic personnel from PRO-Western Visayas to BCPO.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familaran, chairperson of CACPTD, earlier said CACPTD was organized as a strategic adviser to BCPO, empowered to infuse independent and external perspective of policing towards the realization of police Peace and Order Agenda for Transformation and Upholding of the Rule-of-Law (Patrol) Plan 2030.
"Taking into account the 2016 census of the population of Bacolod City which is at 592,591 inhabitants, the police-to-population ratio is projected at one personnel for every 922 inhabitants," Familiaran said.
He said gleaning from the foregoing data, BCPO is in need of 1,185 actual strength of uniformed personnel or an additional of 542 to be compliant with the prevailing standard of 1:500 police to population ratio.