PNP: Crime incidents nationwide down 14%

THE Philippine National Police (PNP) announced on Friday a 14-percent drop in focus crime incidents in the entire country for 2021, consistent with the downtrend in crime incidents since 2016.

PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Bernardo Carlos said such was the prevailing crime trend over the past six years according to the Crime Environment Report presented by the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management during a top-level Command Conference in Camp Crame on Thursday.

The conference was attended by members of the PNP command group and the directorial staff, area commanders, regional directors and directors of national support units.

Carlos noted that from 43,696 incidents in 2020, crime incidents dipped 13.89 percent to only 37,626 or 6,070 fewer incidents in 2021.

The same report indicated a single and double-digit decline in all eight focus crimes between 2020 and 2021, with physical injury posting the biggest decline at 33.20 percent, homicide dropping 19.53 percent, and motorcycle theft down by 15.29 percent.

Although theft incidents posted the highest volume among the eight focus crimes, they slid 5.26 percent to only 11,492 incidents in 2021 from 12,130 in 2020.

Between 2020 and 2021, the number of focus crimes showed a continuing downtrend as recorded in the Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System of the PNP. It cited that the number of focus crimes dropped from a high of 131,685 cases in 2016 to only 37,626 incidents in 2021 or a 71.42 percent decrease over six years, Carlos noted.

He added that the 2020-2021 crime trend was the result of the intensified implementation of Enhanced Managing Police Operations during the onset of the national health emergency in early 2020 with director Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa then at the helm of the PNP, toward the closing months of 2020 until the first five months of 2021 under Gen. Debold Sinas, and sustained through 2021 under Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar until November of that year.