Metro cops should use statisticians – Roxas

MANILA, Philippines - Police stations in Metro Manila should have statisticians to determine what works in the campaign against crime, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas said Friday.

“You should have statisticians in your police stations who would be able to make a regression analysis and determine the three biggest change improvements and the three biggest change deterrents in your areas of jurisdiction,” he said in a statement.

Roxas also asked police officers in Metro Manila to not just work harder, but work smarter.

“What we want to develop is a dependable mechanism for developing outcomes, not hit and miss. This should be one that works when we put it in place and is a dependable one,” he said.

Roxas noted that while some crimes such as mugging, robbery, theft, and drinking-spree induced homicide could be prevented by more police visibility, other crimes such as “crimes of passion” or those involving love triangles could not.

He also stressed the need to increase the number of policemen in uniform on the streets by reassigning those in the offices to the field.

 “These are men trained in police work, in crime investigation and in battling criminals. They should be assigned in the field and civilians can take over their work in the offices,” he said.

While the crime rate in Metro Manila dropped slightly, Roxas urged police officers not to be complacent but to set up more checkpoints, form more police patrols and beef up other signs of police visibility.

“The fact that crime went down is based on numbers, there is indeed a slight reduction in crime incidence. But we have to check whether these are only isolated variances,” he said.