A police general friend, now retired, once advised me to watch my back and to stop all routines that would make anyone an easy target in this part of the world where journalists are routinely killed.

This was after fair reporting of a particularly deadly shootout between the police and a separate anti-drug law enforcement agency earned for me, as Metro Manila news editor of Daily Tribune, veiled threats via texts and calls.

It would be cavalier and escapist to brush aside the journalistic risks to life and limb, especially when police officers themselves reek with skepticism, as many of them have also fallen victim to contract hits.

Anyone — a policeman, politician, journalist, businessman, and even an ordinary citizen — can be at the receiving end of the unwanted attention of those who make a living by killing. Anything, too, no matter how trivial, can trigger the dregs of society to put out a contract on you.

The police assigning a protective officer merely adds a level of target-hardening to those under threat, but none that would deter determined assassins. There are too many examples of this to even bother to cite one. Just read your news feeds.

Going back to that friend, his point was basically "buntot mo, hila mo" or you are primarily in charge of your protection. In most cases, the police, he said, come in after the fact, mostly to investigate a crime already committed.

This is not to say that police visibility or people taking care not to become easy prey to criminals cannot deter crimes from being committed. There are what we call in criminology "crimes of opportunity."

You remove that "opportunity" for petty criminals like pickpockets to victimize you and they march on to easier targets, or those they profile would offer the least resistance to their "apple-picking" enterprises.

Think of teens walking along darkened alleys with their heads buried in their smartphones; think of people leaving their garage gates open, serving "salisi" gang members invitations to come in and loot their houses. These are folks waiting to be victimized.

It is against this backdrop that a contrary position may be offered on the brouhaha raised by some members of the media against the police conducting threat assessment checks on those of them who may be at risk because of their reporting.