From January-June 

Bohol crimes spike 

12.97% over 2018 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, June 29, (PIA)—Crimes in Bohol scaled up 12.97% in the first six months of 2019, an increase that could be first in the recent reports of tamed crime incidences here. 

Crime statisticians at Bohol Provincial Police Office in Camp Francisco Dagohoy noted that the volume of crimes against the Revised Penal Code or otherwise index crimes and those against Special Laws or non-index crimes in 2018 reached 3,701. 

The sum is the total of 1,003 index and 2,698 non-index crimes recorded for the first six months of the year. 

By the same period of 2019 however, index crimes which is largely comprised of theft, physical injuries and robbery reached 1,082 index and 3,099 non-index crimes, pointed out Camp Dagohoy chief Police Colonel Julius Cesar Gornez during the recent Provincial Peace and Order Council Meeting in a joint meeting with the Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Council (PADAC) June 27, 2019. 

The increase can be summed up in the 79 cases of index crimes, which is rated at 8% increase and 401 non-index crimes which is some 15% over the previous year. 

The same police crime data is also reflected in the Philippine National Police National Headquarters’ Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS). 

As to the police accomplishments in taming the top index crimes which largely determine the bulk of the crimes, in 2018, theft which reached 396, or a monthly average of 66 incidents, further ballooned to 456; a 13.15% increase. 

As to physical injuries, from 332 incidents in 2018, it dipped to 295, or an 11.14% decrease in the same period of the following year, as the data from the police camp in Bohol showed. 

For robberies, from 135 incidents in 2018, the figures spiked to 181 incidents, a staggering 34% increase noted. 

On non-index crimes, police noted a slight decrease in traffic related incidents: from 1,467 in 2018 to 1,443 in the first half of 2019. 

The victory in physical injuries however is easily drowned by police crackdown on special laws implementation when in 2018, they tallied 689 cases. By the same period of this year, the figure leapt to 912, a whooping 24% increase. 

A similar trend also presented itself in other non-index crimes which used to have 542 cases last year. 

This year, in the first half of 2019, other non-index crimes reached 744 incidents, which is a spike of 27%. 

All in all, for non-index crimes, from 2,698, the total volume from January to June this year reached 3,099, some 401 cases more than last year and so, a 15% increase. 

The figures above also brought up the average monthly crime rates: a noted 5.58% bloat from 44.73 incidents on blotter every month to nearly 2 crimes a day or 50.53% this year. 

Consequently, the general increase in crime volume also affected the police crime clearance efficiency: from 72.9 3% of the cases had police pinpointing the suspects, but have not apprehended the alleged criminal for lack of hard details that could lead to the conviction of the suspects, to 62.66%, a loss of 10.27%. 

For its crime solution efficiency, from 68.85% in 2018, this first six months, the efficiency sunk to 54.53%. 

This means that for every 100 crime cases where the police are to solve, only 54 are successfully served arrest warrants after being positively identified and are apprehended to answer for his obligations in the proper court. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)