Index crime dips in past 6 months - PNP

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police on Sunday reported a 2.63 percent decrease in overall index crime for the first six months of the year. Among the index crime cases, cases categorized as crimes against persons (murder, homicide, physical injury, rape) went down by 5.12 percent while crimes against property (Robbery and theft) was slightly up by 0.72 percent in the first semester of 2008. The PNP also noted “slight” increases in theft (1.75 percent) and rape (0.49 percent) cases during the January-June period of 2008. “Index crime… is an indication of an effective crime prevention strategy primarily thru increased police visibility, downloading of more personnel to field units, and swift response to incidents,” said PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Nicanor A Bartolome. Bartolome however noted a “marked” increase in non-index crimes during the past six months. Bartolome said the 7.29 percent increase in non-index crime was the result of more accomplishments by PNP units in the enforcement of special laws against illegal gambling, illegal logging, illegal fishing, intellectual property rights violations, crimes against public morals, and other less serious criminal offenses. Non-index crime cases make up 45.7 percent of the 34,512 crime incidents recorded from January to June this year. "Overall, the past six months was generally better compared with the same period last year. Although there is a 1.92 percent increase in Total Crime Volume, much this increase is attributed to Non-Index Crime cases which make up 45.7 percent of all recorded crimes," Bartolome said. He added that of the 34,512 crime incidents recorded from January to June, the PNP was able to solve 30,800 or 89.24 percent of these cases, which was 3.10 percent better than its crime solution performance in the same period in 2007. - GMANews.TV