CCPO passes test calls on 5-min response time

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has passed the promised five-minute response time for alarms and incidents during the preliminary test made by Mayor Mike Rama himself yesterday.

During their walk through, Rama has asked CCPO City Director, Police Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, to call a police station to respond to an “alarm.”

At that time, Rama asked the other policemen around not to communicate with their fellow policemen to check on how they are taking action on his directive. Dalogdog was not also allowed to make a follow-up call.

Dalogdog was confident enough that they could respond within the specified time of three to five minutes.

This is because they have a centralized communication system with the different stations. The CCPO managed to respond in less than five minutes in the Banilad area.

In the second test, Rama asked one of his workforces to call another station to respond to an “emergency” in Nasipit, Talamban.

Even with a bit of traffic, the CCPO managed to beat the five-minute response time again.

Rama was pleased with the outcome of the couple of tests, but still told Dalogdog the need to increase police visibility and to have police outposts in some places.

Rama also told CCPO to include flyovers in their watch to make sure that no homeless would be sleeping within the structure and, worse, throw garbage.

Rama saw for himself a few flyovers that were filthy and smelly.

Aside from the CCPO, the mayor also instructed other departments to clean up and beautify them.

In a separate interview, Dalogdog said they have an intensified unified strategy that all police stations will try to reduce shooting incidents in Cebu City.

Dalogdog admitted that the shooting incidents in the city increased by more than 70 percent and, in response to Rama’s Oplan Run After Perpetrator (ORAP), they are really trying to catch those responsible for the crime.

As an example, the Police Station 5 has recently arrested the suspect in the shooting that happened last Friday night. Dalogdog said they still have other target suspects to arrest.

Barangay Mambaling and the Carbon area are reportedly some of the places that are said to have many shooting incidents, but most of the shootings that happened are related to illegal drugs based on the CCPO’s review of their records.

As to the five-minute response time, Dalogdog said it depends on the peculiarities of an area such as which police station.

They have implemented the Central Beat System which covers the area of Police Station 1 to Police Station 5 and that is where the deployment is focused.

If there is a crime, it will be responded to immediately within five minutes since the police are deployed in the area.

“Kining atong mga beat patrollers naa man sila’y radio so kung halimbawa naay tawag nga robbery, shooting or any crime incidents nga mahitabo nga sakop adtong sa Central Beat System naa man sila’y mga radio ang kadtong mga naa sa vicinity sa crime incidents mao to sila’y atong mga beat patrollers nga mo responde sila didto pato mga patrol cars, naay mga TMRU, TEU or katong mga beat patrollers mismo. So, kana nga pamaagi dali ra gyud nato ma respondehan ang usa ka krimen,” said Dalogdog. — Romeo Marantal/GAN (FREEMAN)