THE Police Regional Office-Davao Region (PRO-Davao) has intensified the mobilization of its police patrol groups to be more visible in communities.
“As patrolmen, you should be in the streets, not the air-conditioned rooms of the offices,” PRO-Davao regional director PbGen. Alden Delvo said in a speech during the simultaneous launching ceremony of PRO-Davao’s "Patrol Rehiyon Onse" at DCPO Grandstand, San Pedro Street, Davao City, May 24.
With the launching of Patrol Rehiyon Onse, Delvo said patrolling the streets is not new - it is a mandate of police officers to patrol the streets to prevent crimes.
However, Delvo sees a need to intensify patrolling to prevent crimes as he observes most police officers are now “reactionary”.
The patrol campaign should also intensify the Philippine National Police’s “three to five-minute response time” whenever crime or emergencies occur.
“There are a lot of factors that will prevent you from being in a crime scene for 3 to 5 minutes especially when you are in the offices and also only reactionary,” Delvo said.
“We are just waiting for the crime to happen, and then we react and try to solve the crime,” he added.
Thus, he urged the police to be “felt, seen, and heard” in the communities, by being proactive and engaging in patrolling the streets, whether by foot or vehicles.
“When you are in the streets, that’s when the evolution starts, that is where you will be able to know intelligence, investigative work and official work,” Delvo said.
Meanwhile, PRO-Davao spokesperson Eudisan Gultiano said preventing the rise of criminality is one goal of Patrol Rehiyon Onse.
“Lahat ng PPO's (police offices) here in DCPO, required na ang kanilang mga patrolman (All PPOs in DCPO have mandated that their patrolmen) should be on the street to patrol and verify because it's our way of preventing yung criminality in the area,” Gultiano said. ICE
