Bacolod City – The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) reported yesterday a reduction of total crime volume in the province by 13.22 percent last year compared to year 2020.
Crime volume went down from 2,950 in 2020 to 2,560 last year, registering a reduction of 390 incidents, NOCPPO said.
The reduction was attributed by NOCPPO to the intervention made by each police station, such as increase of police visibility and chokepoint, arrest of wanted persons, and information dissemination in media platform on crime prevention tips.
However, traffic incidents in Negros Occidental during the same period rose from 899 to 969.
Index crimes, composed of murder, homicide, physical injuries, rape, robbery and theft, also dropped from 178 to 155, a reduction of 90 incidents or 13.37 percent for the same period.
Non-index crimes, such as the implementation of special laws, including the campaign against illegal drugs, gambling, as well as proliferation of loose firearms and wanted persons, also showed a reduction from 2,277 to 1,977, the report added.
Rape cases topped the Eight Focus Crimes that were committed last year by perpetrators with 165, followed by murder-155, theft -95, physical injuries -71, robbery-46, homicide -36, motornapping -15 and one carnapping.
Calatrava topped 30 other municipalities and component cities in Negros Occidental in terms of having the greatest number of murder cases with 18, while also tallying the greatest number of rape cases at 16.
The average monthly crime rate per 100,000 population was recorded at 7.84 percent last year, compared to 9.04 percent in 2020, while the NOCPPO crime solution efficiency dropped from 84.64 percent in 2020 to 77.42 percent last year. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)