NCRPO to enhance dragnet operation and hoping to have more discipline zone in Metro Manila

Ma. Lourdes “Miami” Ebilane
April 25, 2008
Story 2: NCRPO to enhance dragnet operation and hoping to have more discipline zone in Metro Manila

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Regional Director Geary Barias said he is hoping to have more discipline zone in Metro Manila and to have the dragnet operations of each districts to be enhanced more.

Barias cited that the Quezon City has launched their discipline zone last April 23, 2008 along Commonwealth Avenue from Philcoa to Fairview which was dubbed as Sumunod sa Batas or SB Zone. “This is an initiative of the local government of the Quezon City, our role here is for support and of course to apprehend those who will violate any violations even just simple jaywalking.”

He is hoping that other cities in Metro Manila will follow suit. According to him, the main player on the said project is the Mayor of the city, its local enforcers, neighbours, barangays and the MMDA. “We will suggest the discipline zone to the Mayors of the other cities,” Barias said. He also added that if the discipline zone in Commonwealth Avenue the next is the Quezon Avenue.

The main reason for choosing the Commonwealth Avenue is because many people and vehicles are passing by, there are many vendors on the sidewalk and considered as deadliest street.

Those who will violate will have to pay penalties depending on the order of the local government.

Another project that the NCRPO is eyeing is the enhancing of their dragnet operations for them to be able to capture fleeing suspects from the crime scene.

The NCRPO want their radio unit to be upgraded and be connected to all units especially on the District Tactical Operations Center (DTOC) of the districts. This is important so that the police can be able to run after the criminals after an incident and be able to inform other districts to help them capture the criminals who will might run on their districts.

Barias admittedly said that enhancing their dragnet operations will be a big help for them to be able to apprehend suspect, “Our districts are not very much coordinated and connected when it comes to communications. We have different radio frequencies, so we want to have one radio that will be connected from one district to another and of course to the headquarters in NCRPO.” The headquarters of the NCRPO is at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig.

NCRPO Regional Director for Operations Chief SSupt. Samuel Pagdilao said by enhancing their dragnet operations they will also need more personnel, more patrol cars and motorcycles as well, but they will really have to start with the communications.

“What we need is one radio at the NCRPO headquarters that will be used for dragnet operations alone and will be connected to the tactical Operations Center of each districts,” Pagdilao explains.

On his example, Pagdilao said, if ever there is a bank robbery happening in Quezon City, Tactical Operations will inform the NCRPO headquarters, after which, the NCRPO headquarters will inform the nearest district for possible dragnet operations especially if the suspects left the crime scene in less than a minute. “We have to alarm the district that will be possible exit points of the suspects so that our police will have checkpoints immediately,” Pagdilao said.

The NCRPO want to have radio for dragnet operations alone so that the messages that are already coming on the radio that they already have will not be congested. However, Pagdilao also said that the radio for dragnet operations are already available long before, but it was not being practiced to use.

“We want everybody to move, they (policemen on other districts) should not make reasons that ‘it’s their districts, that’s their case’ we do not want this to happen or to be the attitude of our policemen,” Pagdilao added.

With the dragnet operations, once the exit points were blocked, the operations from where the crime has happened will forward the profile of the suspects like the descriptions of the vehicles and the suspects, number of suspects and vehicles used. The concerned districts will give the necessary information on the next district for the policemen at the exit points will be aware of what they should look for.

Pagdilao also said that by the month of May they will have field training exercise on dragnet operations. “We will do this, for our people to be operational on this kind of situations, so that when the reality once happened, they know what to do already.” He added that they observed that most suspects doing crime at a certain area leave the crime scene in less than two minutes, so they really need to block the possible exit points of the suspects.