CAMP DANGWA, Benguet – Newly installed Cordillera police chief Police Brig. Gen. Mafelino Bazar wants more policemen deployed on the streets to patrol crime-prone areas and places of convergence and tap barangay peacekeepers for crime prevention and response.

Bazar said he intends to reduce the number of police personnel assigned to offices and police stations, except those assigned to perform administrative functions.

“I intend to reduce the number of personnel in the offices, so the only ones who will be left are those who are really needed there and working in the office, the others should be patrolling the streets or providing assistance to our countrymen," Bazar said.

He orders deployed personnel to give out calling cards to residents and tourists containing the hotline numbers of police stations.

In return, police can get their numbers as part of the anti-criminality information dissemination.

“I have instructions that the deployed patrollers will hand out calling cards. In return, if our compatriots are willing, we will ask for their numbers so that we can text them with updates on their cases or if we have important dissemination regarding peace and order, we can message them."

Bazar also bared his desire to capacitate the different barangay peacekeepers as auxiliaries in the crime prevention efforts of the PRO-Cordillera.

According to him, most of the time, barangay peacekeepers are the ones who are first at the scene as first responders. That is why, he said, there is a need to capacitate them with proper knowledge and skills on preserving the crime scene and the same time protecting themselves from harm.

He instructed concerned PRO-Cordillera staff to craft training lectures and practicals fitted for the learning requirements of the barangay peacekeepers.

"It would be good if we could train our barangay tanods, what I intend to do is to standardize what we teach them. I also want us to teach them self-defense, like using arnis."

He said the training should include basic intelligence, crime scene preservation, traffic management, patrolling procedures, disaster response, and practicals on self-defense.

"We will do this because we only have a few policemen. There are more of them (barangay tanods), imagine if we had 10 tanods who were taught what to do when there is an incident, that we would multiply our police force," Bazar added.