EACH person who will report a crime at a local police precinct will be issued an Incident Record Form (IRF), which they have to fill with the basic information of the event, a police official said Friday.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Public Information chief Reuben Theodore Sindac said the provision of an IRF was made for the accurate crime recording in the country.
He said the IRF, which is an accountable form to be filled out by a complainant, contains data provided by the desk officer pertaining to the complainant, victim or suspect including the narrative details of the incident. It becomes an official document once it is signed by the investigators and the reporting person.
"The information contained will be immediately recorded in the police blotter, uploaded to the Crime Incident Reporting System (CIRS) database, and becomes the first document included in the case folder," Sindac said.
CIRS is an electronic database system that facilitates crime documentation and systematic data storage and retrieval. It presents a quick, fast and reliable transmission of crime information from lower police units and offices of the PNP to the National Headquarters.
PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima said the use of IRF is implemented in all police stations and offices with investigative functions.
"The implementation of CIRS will ensure the gathering and inclusion of all crime data that are reported in the police station into the said database. This is why the Incident Record Form is very important to both reporting citizen and to us in the PNP," he said.
Purisima said all police stations and units with investigative functions is equipped with CIRS-installed computers, which will be the source of a nationwide database of crime incidents.
He urged the public not to forget to secure such document after reporting an incident.
"It is part of our efforts to further provide our people with true crime reporting this is why IRF is very important to be kept by both complainant and our investigators," the chief PNP said.
Earlier, the PNP launched several programs against criminality in the country in the wake of the increasing criminality, particularly the series of high-profile killings in the Metro Manila.
Included in the program is the accurate crime reporting so that the PNP would be able to identify in what areas they need to pour their resources.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II said he ordered the PNP to provide the country's crime statistics report each week.
Roxas said that from August 11 to August 17 this year, 757 cases of theft and killings were recorded in the Metro Manila while 692 of the similar crimes were recorded from August 18 to 25.
He said although these numbers were lower as compared to its corresponding period last year, he is still not satisfied.
"Hindi pa din nakakatuwa ang ganitong mga report kaya naman inuutusan ko ang PNP na lalo pang palakasin ang mga programa nito laban sa kriminalidad dito sa ating bansa," Roxas said.
However, Roxas said seeing the decreasing cases of crimes particularly in the Metro Manila implicates the effectivity of the PNP's anti-criminality programs citing the augmentation of the policemen manning the streets and checkpoints 24/7.
Roxas advised the PNP to reiterate to each member to work smarter and not just harder to come-up with some own strategies, which will help in the campaign against crime.
"Working harder is not enough. We need to work smarter. What we want to develop is a dependable mechanism for developing outcomes, not hit and miss. This should be one that works when we put it in place and is a dependable one," the Cabinet official said.
"You should have statisticians in your police stations who would be able to make a regression analysis and determine the three biggest change improvements and the 3 biggest change deterrents in your areas of jurisdiction," Roxas told the PNP. (Sunnex)