A ranking police official of the Philippine National Police based in Camp Crame was here in Dumaguete last Friday and announced that the PNP wants to use technology in the prevention and solution of crimes.
Chief Supt. Alex Paul Monteagudo, deputy director, Directorate for Investigation Division Management, said that criminals have been using modern technology to commit crimes like cyber sex, cyber recruitment, detonating bombs with the use of cellphones, and the like.
He said the police would like to exploit this technology to capacitate the officers and men of the PNP in crime prevention and solution.
It’s about time the Police thought about this. In fact, this announcement is long overdue. This move will be a giant step for the police. It will definitely be a big challenge to make every policeman in the country computer-literate, but it’s worth a try.
Computers have gone beyond the glorified typewriters like the XTs, 286 and 386 units of the past. Today’s computers could do much more and would definitely, if utilized properly, be helpful in fighting crime.
In other countries, police cars are equipped with an on-line database that allows a policeman to determine the identity of the car’s owner through the license plate. The same computer can also tell the policeman if the car or its owner is wanted for a crime.
This is doable here in Negros Oriental, except that most vehicles used in committing crimes are motorcycles, and there are so many motorcycles which still do not have plate numbers.
Yes, the police have a lot of catching up to do otherwise, they’d be left far behind.
In Lewis Carrol’s novella Through the Looking Glass, there’s a wonderful dialog between Alice and the Red Queen:
“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else – if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Perhaps all this talk of computerization and investing in modern technology for the police would depend on how fast they could run. But yes, it’s about time.
