This year’s National Crime Prevention Week (NCPW) calls for increased public awareness on the importance of crime prevention through cooperation among communities and law enforcement agencies amid the pandemic.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Community Affairs and Development Division Chief PCol. Romell Velasco emphasized that the fight against criminality and lawlessness should be multi-faceted, with the active participation of every sector of the society.
“We have been adopting programs to continuously carry out a police-community partnership to actively engage the community to support us in crime prevention especially that we are facing the Covid-19 crisis,” he said.
Velasco added that the PNP has been strengthening its programs and policies on crime prevention and control to stir collaboration between the citizens and the police with the pandemic triggering a spike in crime prevalence.
National Police Commission Regional Director Julieta Rañeses underscored that the observance aims to highlight crime prevention efforts on local, state, and national levels towards the creation of safer and more caring communities.
“We could survive this pandemic, and at the same time fight crime prevalence and lawlessness, when we unite towards eradicating them…The important things have been delivered and what matters now is that we act as one and attain our goals with vigor,” she said.
The week-long celebration also creates awareness on prevailing crimes such as cybercrime victimizations, and violence against women and children, which are in an upward trend.
With this, PNP spearheaded a webinar on the prevention of cybercrime including online libel, online buy and sell scam, photo and video voyeurism, and sexual extortion.
The commission also spearheaded a webinar on the Anti Violence Against Women and Children or Republic Act 9262, which penalizes as a public crime certain acts of violence against women and their children.
The NCPW observance goes with the theme “Komunidad at Pamahalaan Magtulungan: Krimen, Korapsyon at Pandemya Labanan”. (PIA 3)
