BENGUET: To project an environment of relative peace and order, many unscrupulous police commanders have devised an ingenious but wicked scheme to drastically reduce crime incidents in their areas—by not reporting them at all.

No less than Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, regional director of the Police Regional Office-Cordillera, has revealed that in his jurisdiction alone, several police offices had not been honest in reporting crime.

“It was found that there are police offices that maintain two blotters, one for the public to see and a confidential blotter that is used in their reporting to the higher headquarters and local government,” Magalong said.

The police blotter, he said, which reflects the daily activities and the crime incidents reported and attended to by the local police, is used as a basis in the computation and reporting of crime incidents.

“This confidential blotter accordingly did not reflect all the crime incidents, which was reason why the statistics were low,” the official explained.

“To see a decrease in the crime statistics is good but to report a decrease, which is not the real situation is a different matter as it does not reflect the true situation, preventing appropriate action and intervention to be undertaken,” he added.

Magalong could not say whether the illegal practice is prevalent in other regions, including Metro Manila.

3,000 cases missing
Magalong disclosed that in the Cordillera region alone, there were inconsistencies in the 2011 crime statistics. He said that they found out that some 3,000 incidents were missing, or have gone unreported from January to May.

According to him, 2,000 of the missing cases were in Baguio City. Several police officers are now in hot water and are facing sanctions for the mess. However, he did not name any of the officers involved pending the result of an ongoing investigation.

“Accurate reporting of crime incidents make the programs of the PNP effective. However, the regional police office has discovered that some officers have been misreporting crime statistics in their areas of jurisdiction,” Magalong lamented.

Inefficient
Such malfeasance, he explained, has initially rendered the Global Information System installed in the Philippine National Police (PNP), inefficient.

“We place policemen where they are needed and this decision is made based on the crime statistics reported. Crime statistics is an important factor in the making of programs and projects that would deter criminality,” Magalong further stressed.

Accurate crime statistics, he stressed, presents a clear picture of the real peace and order situation in a certain locality as it show the specific time of the day when crimes are committed as well as the kinds of criminal activities prevalent in that area.

These pieces of information guide the National Police leadership in coming up with measures on how to distribute manpower, which, at the moment, is very limited. Likewise, these statistics allow police officials to determine what programs should be undertaken.

In Cordillera, Magalong said that the total police-population ratio is 1:573. In Baguio, there is a higher discrepancy with one policeman for every 720 people.

Blotter-based
Since the so-called blotter-based system in crime reporting was adopted by the police body in 2009, the nationwide crime statistics rose dramatically because, unlike in the past when crimes were not correctly reported as they happened, all incidents are now posted on the police blotter.

Director General Alan Purisima, PNP chief, prior to assuming the top police post, said that the rise in the crime figures may also mean that more people are now reporting crimes, signifying their renewed trust in the organization.

Records show that from nearly 67,000 recorded nationwide in 2008, the total crime volume went up to nearly 500,000 in 2009 when the blotter-based system was implemented, dubbed Unit Crime Periodic Report.

During the same period, crimes in Metro Manila surged 300 percent to 60,000.