COVID-19 security measures help bring down Cordova crimes

The Cordova Police reports a decrease of the crime rate in the municipality on both first and second quarters this year. | Graph Courtesy of Cordova Police Station

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cordova police have partly attributed the significant decrease in crime rate in the first and second quarters of 2020 to the strict security measures implemented to stop the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Dili nato matang-tang sa factors nag pagubos sa criminality is because of the implementation sa protocols sa COVID-19, sa curfew and because people are staying inside their homes,” said Police Lieutenant Colonel Jan Ace Layug, Cordova Police Station chief, during a phone interview.

(We cannot take away among the factors of the lowering of criminality is the implementation of the COVID-19 protocols, on the curfew, and because people are staying inside their homes.)

Index and non index crimes

Layug was referring to the report showing the index crime recorded in Cordova town decreased by 64 percent in the first quarter or from January to March 2020 and dipped by 84 percent for the second quarter of the year or from April to June 2020 as compared to the same period in 2019.

For the non index crimes, there was a 40 percent drop for the first quarter and 79 percent for the second quarter.

The index crimes are crimes that are often committed which includes rape, murder, homicide, physicial injury, carnapping, theft and robbery while the non-index crimes are those crimes committed that could be covered under special laws like illegal logging or ordinances.

Layug said that for the index crime on the first quarter of 2020, there were only 22 cases as compared to the 62 cases in the same period of 2019 and 12 cases for the second quarter of 2020 as compared to 77 cases of the same period in 2019.

Comparing the the data of 2020 alone, there have been a constant decrease of the index crime incidents between the first and second quarter.

On the other hand, non index crimes for the first quarter recorded 95 incidents which dropped about 40 percent from the recorded 159 incidents of the same time in 2019. The drop of non-index crimes also continue on the second quarter which recorded only 35 incidents or 79 percent drop from the 166 incidents recorded in the second quarter of 2019.

Other contributing factors

Aside from security measures implemented for COVID-19 as a contributing factor to the decrease in the town’s crime index, Layug said that police intervention was also a factor to this trend. 

Layug said that the interventions included more police visibility through the checkpoints and more police patrols.

“Nag decrease ang crime incidents significantly because of police intervention activities our regular patrolling, standby points, checkpoints as well as ang implementation nato ang community quarantine guidelines,” said Layug.

He said they would continue these security measures and intensify their anti-criminality campaign to keep the crime rates low and the residents of the town safe./dbs