A fatal mistake the PNP needs to prevent
FINDING ANSWERS
As a lawyer whose career started in the field of human rights, it always pains me to watch TV news about instances of injustice, abuse, or blatant disregard for human life by those who are supposedly sworn to serve and protect.
Last week’s ABS-CBN news account about the anguish of a mother whose son’s life was snuffed out by policemen in Navotas certainly tugs at the heartstrings of parents whose child means the world for them.
“Ano ba tingin nila sa anak ko, ano lang po – pusa o aso na binaril lang nila (What do they think of my child – just a mere cat or dog that they shot)?” a visibly distressed Rodaliza Baltazar lamented as she bewailed how cops shot to death her son Jerhode “Jemboy” Baltazar on Aug. 2 in what was purportedly a case of mistaken identity.
In an interview, Navotas Police Chief Col. Allan Umipig said police got information that a shooting suspect they were looking for had boarded a boat. “When the police arrived at the scene, they saw Baltazar and his friend’s boat. Rattled and scared, the 17-year-old boy jumped off the boat and swam in the river, while his friend remained in the boat. The cops then fired at Baltazar.” another news report said.
“It was found out later that the 17-year-old victim was not the suspect the cops were looking for,” the report said.
What happened to an innocent victim like Jemboy, who was unarmed and apparently so scared at the time he was fired upon, is certainly the stuff of every parent’s nightmare. The shock and torment Rodaliza must have felt upon learning about the tragic fate of her son while she was in a faraway country is unimaginable.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos did right in assuring that Rodaliza will find justice for the senseless death of Jemboy. In his visit to condole with the Baltazar family, Abalos said: “Alam ko pong mahirap tanggapin ang nangyari, napakabigat at napakasakit po nito. Maski ako, galit ako sa nangyaring ito (I know it’s hard accepting what happened, it’s heartrending and so painful. Even me, I’m angry at what happened) – and I will make sure that justice will be done here.”
He said he will discuss with the leadership of the Philippine National Police its operational procedures, including the extent of command responsibility, to ensure a similar tragedy does not happen again.
The policemen involved in the shooting incident certainly have to be accountable for violating the PNP operations manual that prohibits the use of warning shots, and states that “the police officer must first issue a verbal warning before he could use force against an offender.”
Another issue that needs to be threshed out in this particular case is why the police had not been wearing body cams. I find so flimsy the excuse that the police had no time to wear them because they were on a hot pursuit operation.
The regular use of cameras during operations, attached to the upper part of police uniforms, to provide raw video recordings of encounters between law enforcers and the citizenry, is one of the PNP reforms that have been okayed years ago and is supposed to be fully implemented by this time.
That policemen have made mistakes with innocent lives in the past cannot be denied but, as many studies have shown, a lot of mistakes could be prevented if police are equipped with functioning body cams.
A Cambridge University study in 2016 revealed that “police equipped with body-worn cameras receive 93 percent fewer complaints from the public” as it suggested “the technology helps to cool down potentially volatile encounters.”
“The cameras create an equilibrium between the account of the officer and the account of the suspect about the same event – increasing accountability on both sides,” said lead author Dr. Barak Ariel from Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology.
“Officers begin encounters with more awareness of rules of conduct, and members of the public are less inclined to respond aggressively,” Dr. Ariel said as he explained the knowledge that encounters were being filmed made policemen “think about their actions more consciously.”
In light of my past experience as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government and chairman of the National Police Commission, I’d like to stress another point: To spot and remove police misfits, the PNP must conduct periodic or regular evaluation to continually determine physical, mental, emotional, and moral fitness of cops.
Of course, prior to being accepted into the PNP, recruits must be subjected to thorough screening, selection, and training processes, with strengthened values formation. But the continued evaluation of police officers while active in the service is paramount, to ensure that the men and women in uniform are capable to carry out their sworn commitment to serve and protect. (finding.lina@yahoo.com)