No smoking for Makati police

Makati City police officers – especially those on mobile patrol operations – will no longer be allowed to smoke while on duty beginning January.

Superintendent Gilbert Cruz will issue a memorandum directing his men against huffing and puffing tobacco in public.

Cruz said he had been receiving complaints against policemen smoking while on duty, particularly those on board mobile patrol vehicles that roam the city streets.

"It appears that the public is concerned over how our policemen act while performing their duties," Cruz told The STAR.

He said the idea behind the smoking ban was not to suppress a person’s right to pump nicotine into his own lungs but rather to improve how Makati’s police officers look and present themselves when in uniform.

Cruz said the public is concerned about the image that police officers project, explaining that how a person behaves in public play a vital factor in how others will perceive them.

"They can still smoke during their private time but not while on duty. It’s for them, it will earn them more respect," he explained.

Cruz said complaints or concerns about policemen who smoke personally reached him through the "E-mail Mo Si Hepe" (E-mail the Chief) system of the Makati police’s Internet website.

The interactive website allows anyone to see what’s on and what’s new with the Makati police while also being able to directly communicate with the chief.

It also provides basic information about the city, the police force, other programs and projects, and the contact numbers of each and every police station in the locality.

"The program is working perfectly," Cruz said noting that most of the e-mails he gets are requests for copies of the Criminal Modus Operandi video production which was released and distributed for free on DVD format last month as a crime prevention measure.

"People are asking us to make the video downloadable through our website www.makatipnp.com. We will try to work on it," he said.

The Makati police is currently working on requests for the DVDs to have Chinese and English subtitles for the benefit of foreigners working in the country’s financial capital.

The video production, a documentary that runs for almost two hours, shows how various criminal syndicates operate especially on the streets discussing the modus operandi of pickpockets, swindlers, cyber criminals and even terrorists.