To speed up the verification process of every apprehended person, the Cebu City Police Office has planned the creation of a database of wanted persons, manned by a special unit.
CCPO director Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador told reporters that since the PNP’s computerization program for a nationwide database is not working yet, his command will initiate its own database for the time being.
This local database will be attached to the existing Mobile Alarm Response System of the city government, a security system that Mayor Tomas Osmeña had offered for use by bankers as their primary alarm mode against robberies.
Comendador said he will ask the city government if this plan will work with out well with MARS otherwise he will have it attached instead to the Base Control of the city’s Police Hotline 166.
The policemen on the field, armed with a database for wanted criminals, will find it easier to verify immediately a person’s criminal records at every instance of arrest of apprehension.
In the present setup, it will take one to two days before the police can get a copy of the warrants of arrest for a particular suspect.
There are police special units that usually do the checking but then there are other police stations that do not conduct checking, except when other police units are interested in the suspect and request for the suspect’s records.
“With this we could hold a person longer and conduct investigation,” Comendador said.
The arresting officers, especially the Mobile Patrol Group, who are the first responders to arrive at a particular crime scene will automatically ask the base control to run down the database for a record check of the suspects.
Comendador said the idea has a semblance with that of the US Police department but the only big difference is that the local police will have no laptops on board their police cars with connections to the database of the police department.
For now, the CCPO have already started using the electronic blotter or e-blotter where crimes are being logged into the computers of each police stations instead of the past methods where records are kept on logbooks and documents requiring much office space or storage. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE