Sinas cites challenges cops face in investigating a crime

Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office of Central VIsayas (PRO-7) director, holds a press briefing on Aug. 13, 2019. |CDND Photo/Alven Timtim

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Immediate family cooperation, lack of witnesses to testify and lack of footage of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are among the biggest challenges the police face during criminal case investigations.

Although their crime solution efficiency had increased by about 60 percent, the police in Central Visayas still go through the same struggles during their criminal investigations, said Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, during the 2019 Directorate for investigation and Directive Management (DIDM) validation in the Cebu Provincial Capitol Social Hall along Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu City earlier, today, October 7, 2019.

Sinas discussed the family cooperation delay.

He said when a family was still grieving, it could be difficult to instantly obtain relevant information they would need for the case.

He said it would be time consuming to get the family’s statement on the case, which would be as important as the other information the police would need.

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He also touched on the difficulty of holding witnesses to testify for the case, no matter how much convincing and assurance of protection they would negotiate for the witness.

He said they could not force these persons as well since they would also expose their lives to the public and could possibly endanger themselves.

Then, there’s also the lack of CCTV cameras in certain areas where a crime will happen, which is also another hindrance for the investigation.

Sinas said they would want to encourage the residents or establishments’ owners to secure CCTV cameras as this would come in handy in identifying criminals.

Despite these challenges, Sinas said that they were still satisfied with their investigation performance.

“So far we are catching up, we are doing our job,” said Sinas.

Police Major General Elmo Francis Sarona, DIDM director who was the speaker for the validation, also disclosed that one of the reasons that they were also conducting the validation, was to come up with tactics that would improve their investigation and to also promote policies from their headquarters./dbs