Crime prevention DVD soon available for foreigners

Makati City’s informative DVDs that expose how street criminals operate will soon be available with Mandarin Chinese and English subtitles.

The improvement is meant to teach foreign nationals living and working in the country’s financial and business capital how to avoid become crime victims.

"We are now working on the upgrade. Our DVD, Criminal Modus Operandi, will soon have Mandarin Chinese and English subtitles," Makati City police chief Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said.

"We decided to do this based on the request of foreign embassy officials and employees who watched the Filipino version," he told The STAR.

Although among the smallest localities of Metro Manila, Makati is home to 54 foreign embassies mostly located within posh subdivisions and in the central business district.

Though its resident population falls at less than half-a-million, its daytime population swells to more than 1.3 million because of workers and visitors.

With only 500 policemen tasked to keep law and order in Makati, the police to population ratio is one police officer for every 825 persons at night and one for every 2,277 during daytime.

Cruz, with the support of Mayor Jejomar Binay, came out with the idea of creating an informative DVD that features re-enactments or dramatizations of how ordinary people can present themselves from being victimized to inform the public about how common criminals operate.

The video presentation exposes various criminal modus operandi learned from pickpockets, holdups, kidnappings, credit card scams, among others. It also has tips on basic bomb detection and precautionary measures against terrorist attacks.

The DVDs were reproduced and distributed for free in shopping malls, schools, embassies and other public areas.

"Since the video presentation was in Filipino, foreign embassy officials and employees are asking us to release versions with Mandarin Chinese and English translations," Cruz said.

"We are now working on it. We have already distributed more than a thousand copies of the original version and so far, it is serving its purpose."

Cruz said they are looking into the possibility of also coming up with subtitles in other foreign languages like German, Korean, French and others.

"We’ll see what we can do. The request for copies is overwhelming. It is good to know that the public appreciated how the police wants them to be safe by educating them," he added.