The Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) reported a recent decrease in the city’s crime rate with 43 criminal incidents recorded earlier this month, between March 1 and 7; a drop from the 60 recorded around the same period last year.

ICPO operations chief, Police Major Ruel F. Firmo, credited police intervention operations, along with visibility, for the consistent decline in the local crime rate.

“We conducted one-time, big-time operations, wherein 12 wanted persons were arrested,” he explained. “We also had our saturation drives [and] enforcement of city ordinances.”

Meanwhile, the ICPO official said they are currently working on a division to deal with riding-in-tandem suspects.

“We are going to offer to the Public Safety and Transportation Management office our plan of creating a motorized team who will monitor the riding in tandem groups,” Firmo stated. “This team existed before but was not sustained and we would like to bring it back to help prevent crimes.”/WDJ