QC police to have computerized blotter system in 2 months

QUEZON CITY, Philippines - The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) is ready to replace its old blotter books in about two months with its new Electronic Blotter (e-Blotter) System. Instead of traditional hardcover notebook and pen, cops will encode details of crimes in a custom-built databased designed to collate crime statistics and generate "crime maps," according to Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula, QCPD director. "The primary objective of the database is to simplify collection so that the raw data is as accurate as possible," Gatdula said in an interview on Monday. In the traditional “blotter book" system, complainants recount a crime incident to a police officer, who in turn jots it down on a notebook. "The current blotter system has no format, creating a possibility for some details to get left out," said Chief Inspector Nicolas Torre III, chief of the QCPD District Operations and Plans Division. Torre added that the absence of the aid of a computer further aggravates the “inaccuracy" of crime reporting. Management Tool With e-Blotter, a computer application will be used where police officers can enter details like the suspect’s name, aliases, gang affiliation, photographs, and artist's sketch in specially designated fields. "Kapag may hinahanap ka lang na kriminal, ita-type mo lang ang pangalan, lalabas na kaagad ang picture (When you're searching for a criminal, you just type his name and his picture comes up)," Gatdula said. The new "management tool" will not only simplify the gathering and organization of crime information but also provide instant crime statistics, according Metro Manila chief Director Geary Barias. "Instead of the tedious process in traditional blotters, police will have real-time crime statistics," Barias said after a press conference at the QCPD headquarters at Camp Karingal in Quezon City Monday morning. He added that the e-Blotter would instantly provide authorities information on “crime hot spots" and which crimes happens most in which places. "Through a crime chart, we will know where crimes usually happen so that we can concentrate our forces there, our patrol manpower, and village intelligence network," Barias said. "Dahil dito, mapapabilis ang decision-making. Titignan mo na lang ang mapa (Because of this, decision making will be faster. You just look at the map)." For victims not intending to file criminal charges, Barias said they should still at least report the incidents to authorities and have them entered in the blotter. “We encourage victims to report crimes even if they don’t want to pursue a case against suspects," Barias said. "That would still help us in making a chart or map of the crime incidents in the city. Through e-Blotter, policemen will have a better appreciation of criminal cases and have a better grasp of the situation." Barias said that the QCPD’s e-Blotter is the first of its kind in the Philippines. “I hope others will follow the e-Blotter of the QCPD," he added. P5-million budget Torre said that the new system would only require a P5-million budget since no new equipment would be needed for the said computerization. He added the budget would only be used to pay the computer experts who would create the computer application to be used for the e-Blotter. The said application can run on all computers, even old ones. Torre said the program is "being developed with Pentium 1 in mind," referring to the oldest version of the popular computer processor. In fact, the system is said to be user-friendly that even senior policemen who do not have a broad knowledge of computers can still use it, Torre added. More than a decade ago, the National Police had attempted a similar effort at putting up such a technology with the National Crime Information System. The system, however, was not widely adopted in all police stations in Metro Manila, according to Torre. - GMANews.TV