The National Capital Region Police Office is now treating peace and order-related social media posts as equivalent to lodging complaints in police stations in what appears to be a new policy aimed at encouraging netizens to report crime and even abuses of government officials that require police action.
NCRPO director Police Major Gen. Guillermo Eleazar explained that policing should keep up with the changing times especially with the advent of new technology such as smart phones that come with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Based on police observation, people would only bother to seek police assistance if the crime or abuses directly concern them – but would normally ignore if they are not affected or too petty to take their precious time to go to police stations.
Instead of seeking police assistance, some of the netizens would rather vent their frustration or rant in their social media accounts.
“As I have been explaining, big criminal cases start with petty crime. Criminals are usually emboldened to repeat their petty crime or even engage in big-time criminal cases because their small misdeeds in the past were not punished,” said Eleazar.
Given the problem that comes with netizens being too busy to go to the police stations that they would rather post their complaints in the social media, Eleazar said policemen should take the initiative of monitoring criminal incidents and abuses in the social media.
Once monitored to have occurred in their areas of jurisdiction and verified to be true, Eleazar said that police commanders should ensure that these complaints posted in the social media must immediately be acted upon.
“If these are not acted upon, it is the police organization that is usually being bashed for alleged inaction, which is unfair because we have repeatedly proven that we would immediately act if complaints are made,” said Eleazar.
There is a middle ground between police action and peace and order-related rants and complaints in the social media, according to NCRPO chief, and one of them is for Metro Manila policemen to be active in social media.
Eleazar said that commanders could not reason out that social media are only for millennials or the younger generation since he himself had already started to adapt to social media.
“Actually, I am forwarding information received or read from the social media to concerned unit commanders for verification and appropriate action,” Eleazar said.
He said such social media complaints have been very instrumental in running after police abuses in the past. (Aaron Recuenco)