By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) here reported a 27.16% decrease in index crimes or crimes against persons and property from January to December 2020.
Lieutenant Abegael Donasco, NOCPPO’s public information officer, said 622 index crimes were recorded last year, a 232-case drop from 854 cases in 2019.
Index crimes include murder, homicide, rape, robbery, theft, motornapping, carnapping, and physical injuries. They are called eight focus crimes in PNP parlance.
Last year, 176 murder cases were recorded, followed by rape with 154, physical injuries, 106, theft, 70, robbery, 53, homicide, 48, and motornapping, 15.
NOCPPO has not recorded any carnapping incident in 2020.
Murder and homicide incidents decreased by 87% and 17%, respectively, while robbery and theft cases reduced by 48% and 55%, respectively.
Rape cases also dropped by 3.75%.
The average monthly crime rate last year was down by 8.74%, compared to 9.01% in 2019.
NOCPPO recorded 92.14% crime clearance efficiency, wherein cases were filed but suspects were at large, while 78.69% were recorded for crime solution efficiency, wherein cases were filed and suspects were identified and arrested.
Donasco said the restrictions on the movement of people brought by the pandemic contributed to the reduction of crimes, considering that people were strictly advised to stay at home if they do not have urgent transactions outside their houses amid the community quarantine status.
