PNP to use tech to enforce quarantine

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) and its Joint Task Force COVID-Shield will start to apply various technologies to enforce the enhanced community quarantine, an official said yesterday.

Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, commander of the task force, said some of these new technologies were used in previous events hosted by the country and will be used to prepare for the implementation of the quarantine and a selective or total lockdown.

A mobile command center – a self-contained control vehicle – will be deployed and operated by the PNP Highway Patrol Group to monitor and synchronize operations, especially at dedicated control points nationwide. 

The vehicle houses a collaboration and operations management system that supports multi-agency safety and security coordination that was developed by private contractor SaferPH Innovations, according to Eleazar.

The task force will also use drones equipped with thermal imagers at checkpoints as well as smartphones will apps that can transmit and record global positioning system locations, text messages and photos.

Eleazar said these apps will also be used for license plate recognition, computer-generated images of faces and incident and traffic violation reporting, among others.