Cebu City Police note 55% decrease in ‘focus crimes’

The Cebu City Police Office has noted a 55 percent drop on focus crimes in Cebu City from January 1 to December 22, 2020.  | CCPO photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City’s police have recorded a double-digit decline in crimes this 2020 compared to the previous year.

Data from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) showed that a total of 1,084 focus crimes were logged from January 1, 2020 to December 22, 2020.

It was a 55 percent drop compared to the 2,412 focus crimes made during the same period in 2019.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Clark Arriola, CCPO information officer, attributed the decline in crimes to quarantine restrictions imposed in the city to prevent the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“Quarantine restrictions, such as quarantine passes, minimized the number of people going out in public places. Lesser people outside meant lesser opportunities for criminals,” said Arriola in Cebuano.

In the Philippine National Police (PNP), focus crimes consist of murder, homicide, physical injuries, rape, robbery, theft, and carnapping motorcycles and automobiles.

Cebu City first implemented enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) last March 28, 2020. It was downgraded to general community quarantine (GCQ) last June but it was short-lived as the city experienced a surge of new COVID-19 cases, and was reverted back to ECQ by June 15.

The city only shifted to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) in September but since then, the need for quarantine passes (Qpass) in public areas was retained.

In 2020, CCPO’s report stated that theft has the most number of incidents recorded for this year so far, with 503. It was followed by physical injuries with 251 and robbery with 114.

The police also posted an improvement in solving and clearing crime incidents from January 1 to December 22 this year.

On the other hand, there were 1,063 suspects arrested and 997 operations carried against illegal gambling this year, fewer than the 12, 808, and 1,357 respectively made in 2019.

Only P21,713 worth of money were confiscated from anti-illegal gambling operations this year, a 90 percent drop compared to the previous year.

But while there were lesser crimes reported and anti-illegal gambling operations conducted this year, the number of operations against illegal drugs by the police has increased.

CCPO reported having netted 42,537 persons involved in the illicit trade from January 1 to December 22, which is over 4,400 percent higher than the 944 arrested in 2019.

Law enforcers also conducted 1,386 anti-illegal drug operations this year, accounting for a 130 percent increase. /dbs

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