BACOLOD City Police Officer-in-charge Celestino Guara is again urging the City Council to require business establishments to install closed circuit television cameras (CCTVs) to help solve street crimes.
Guara said that during last week's visit of Police Regional Office-Western Visayas Director Samuel Pagdilao in Bacolod, the police chiefs in Negros Occidental were told to encourage their local chief executives to put up CCTVs in their respective areas.
Pagdilao explained that lots of crimes can be easily solved through the use of CCTVs, which can capture the identity of the perpetrators.
Guara said he has been pushing for the passage of a city ordinance since last year to compel owners of big business establishments in the city to install CCTVs before renewing their business permits. The measure, however, was not passed.
He said he will talk to Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson and Councilor El Cid Familiaran, City Council chairman on police matters, so the ordinance on CCTV installation can be revived and passed.
Recently, Councilor Al Victor Espino proposed a resolution requiring the business establishments in the city to put CCTVs as a requirement for the renewal of their business permits, but the resolution did not prosper.
Guara said they will be intensifying their intelligence monitoring amid the resurrection of the modes of operations of the so called "acetylene gang."
Acetelyne gang members usually rent a place near the banks or pawnshops of their targets and they would dig manholes near the buildings to enter these establishments, he said.
He noted that they were called acetylene gang because of their use of acetylene torch to destroy the vaults of banks and pawnshops.
"It is not remote that these gangs will transfer here in the province of Negros Occidental as they are already being hunted by the policemen in Metro Manila," Guara said.