We appreciate the common sense and simplicity of PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez’s order for police to focus on street patrols to deter crime.
If law enforcement is invisible, who would bother following rules?
The July 14 ambush of businessman Jaime Villaceran in Colon Street is a good example of this basic principle.
There was no policeman at the corner of downtown Cebu’s busiest junction that morning, despite rush hour traffic after 7 a.m.
The senior police officer assigned there was attending a training seminar. His partner, a new police recruit, had gone off to the next station at the end of the block.
By the time, gunshots were fired, it was too late for them to respond to a murder by motorcycle-riding assailants. The killers just disappeared.
Public trust (and a criminal’s fear of getting caught) starts with having law enforcers in plain view.
CCTV cameras in the junction don’t make up for the absence of a uniformed policeman on patrol. As it turned out, the Cebu city government’s security camera on Colon Street was “blind” to the violence; the lens was focused in the oppositte direction.
So it’s a good thing that Chief Supt. Tom Bañas, Central Visayas police chief, is cascading the directive to reinforce foot patrols.
His walkabout and inspection of Colon Street on Tuesday was a tangible reminder.
Even policemen engaged in office work have to render patrol duty for at least 10 hours a week, he said. We hope that by “walking the talk”, police visibility will be a daily reality, not just a spurt of interest because of pressure to keep the peace during the visits of foreign delegates for the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) series of meetings in Cebu in August and September.
We want to see policemen in proper uniform, alert and ready to respond to a request for aid, or to the first sign of a crime in progress.
They don’t have to be standing in every street corner, just the few, strategic spots where they count.
We want men and women of the PNP to take their duties seriously, with their eyes on the job, not texting or checking their Facebook accounts on mobile phones while they rest under tree shade.
They are here “to serve and protect” the public.
Marquez’s marching orders for police to make a difference, not with grand projects, but basic work of a foot patrol are an admirable start for a new PNP chief.
He said he was confident security plans for Cebu during APEC would go well because Cebu has handled many international events before without incident. What we want to see is a sustained effort not just for APEC, but all year round.
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