Brigadier General Nicolas deloso Torre III, director of Police Regional Office 11 (PRO 11), has ordered officers of the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) to properly record crime statistics so as not to alarm the public.
During the dawn conference via Zoom on June 28, 2024, Deputy City Director for Operations Lt. Col. Paulino Zaulda Jr. presented the statistics of the focus crimes recorded in the first five months of 2024 in Davao City.
Torre noted that there were 22 reported killings for the period as compared to only three physical injuries.
“Thus, if indeed the figures were accurate, then it would paint a community whose people kill each other seven times more than they maul each other which is very unlikely considering the reputation of Davao City as a very safe city,” he said in a statement.
Torre likewise directed DCPO to coordinate with the relevant agencies to stem the rape cases reported in the city where 41 incidents were recorded for the period thus translating into two rape incidents per week.
Torre stressed the importance of recording and reporting the exact number of incidents, including those recorded in the barangays, to show the real peace and order situation in a place thus ensuring that the unit commanders can create responsive, effective, and timely anti-criminality interventions such as police operations, deployment plans and programs, and others.
He reminded the commanders that physical injury is a precursor crime to more serious crimes thus if not properly recorded, evaluated, and addressed, would eventually lead to more serious crimes such as killings.
“Record shows that most of the reported motives in the cases of killings were personal grudges and there were previous violent incidents that had occurred between suspects and victims,” he said.
A few days before this online conference, Torre personally visited DCPO and expressed his desire to replicate the Three Minute Response Time (3MRT) that he had successfully implemented in his previous commands noting that Davao City has the most advanced public safety-oriented command and control system nationwide yet DCPO failed to support it with the fast police response expected by the community.
In this regard, he exhorted all DCPO officers to personally supervise their personnel, especially through radios.
Torre also talked with the five provincial directors (Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao Occidental, and Davao de Oro) via Zoom.
This meeting was the last in the series of meetings with the provincial directors done by the regional director himself to give the unit commanders a chance to brief him on the situation in their respective areas of responsibility and brainstorm solutions to challenges.
PRO 11 reiterated its commitment to providing Dabawenyos with the best policing service that they had ever seen. It recognizes that Davao City is one of the most progressive communities in the country and its people deserve the most responsive, flexible, and dependable modern police service.
