By: Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) reported a 34.59 percent reduction in crime volume from January to November 2019.
Based on data from the BCPO, 1,715 criminal incidents were reported this year, 907 less than 2,622 cases for the same period in 2018.
Index crimes or crimes against person or property totalled 328 cases, against 586 incidents in 2018, or a decrease of 258 cases (44.03 percent).
Non-index crimes or violation of special laws like illegal drug trading, also dropped by 31.88 percent (649 cases) from 2,036 cases in 2018 to 1,387 incidents this year.
For the eight focus crimes, murder increased by 22.73 percent from 22 cases in 2018 to 27 incidents in 2019 while homicide also surged by 33.3 percent from nine cases last year to 12 incidents this year.
Other focus crimes include theft, 124; robbery, 68; physical injury, 46; rape, 44; and motornapping, 5.
Meanwhile, police-initiated operations increased by 10.40 percent with 934 operations this year compared to 846 operations last year.
The operations include 550 illegal drug stings, 300 against illegal gambling, 68 against illegal possession of firearms, 16 against illegal possession of deadly weapons, and two against violation of the Omnibus Election Code.
Amid the increase in murder and homicide cases this year, Police Colonel Henry Biñas, BCPO director, said that they are intensifying police visibility patrol with the deployment of augmentation forces in streets and other areas of convergence.
