An officer of the Caloocan City Police said that an additional police force would significantly improve the police-to-population ratio in Caloocan City by establishing its own police district.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Enrique Torres, Caloocan City Police Assistant Chief of Police for Administration, said that currently they have only 981 police officers in Caloocan City.
“Once we achieve the proposal to establish the Caloocan Police District, the NCRPO will provide personnel that will fit the ideal ratio of one police officer for every 500 residents,” Torres emphasized.
Based on the 2020 census from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the city has 1.6 million residents, resulting in a police-to-population ratio of nearly 1,700 residents per police officer.
For Torres, the creation of the Caloocan City Police District will help ensure a sufficient number of personnel to effectively cover the entire city.
“Geographically speaking, Caloocan City is unique since it is separated into two parts. Once the petition is approved, it will improve our police interventions, because the police force will increase.”
He added that this will enable them to add police officers in areas that are lacking in deployment.
At least 4,000 additional police officers would greatly help their substations in covering their jurisdictional areas.
Despite the ongoing challenges in covering Caloocan City, he said that the police are still doing their best to eradicate crime.
“We have significant accomplishments. Caloocan has made major arrests related to illegal drugs, amounting to millions. We can’t completely stop it, but we are doing our best to improve police intervention,” said Torres.
If the petition is approved, it would lessen the area of jurisdiction of the Northern Police District, as they will then cover only the cities of Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela.