BACOLOD CITY – The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (Nocppo) has launched a text messaging or short messaging system-based anti-anti-criminality reporting system.

POLICE Col. Rainerio de Chavez (third from left), Negros Occidental police director, and Talisay City Vice Mayor Jose Nicolas Jalandoni III (right) lead the soft launching of ‘Project: Dasig,’ an anti-criminality reporting system at the Talisay City Police Station on Wednesday, May 8. (Glazyl Masculino)

Police Col. Rainerio de Chavez, Negros Occidental police director, led the soft launching of “Project: Dasig” at the Talisay City Police Station on Wednesday, May 8.

Dasig is a Hiligaynon word which means to be quick or do something with speed or promptness. 

De Chavez said that he first conceptualized the project during his short stint as Rizal provincial police chief and he thought of launching it in the province due to its progress.

With the ongoing development in the entire province, it is important that the peace and order situation must be maintained to attract more investors and let the people feel safer amidst the growing population and commerce, he said.

Project Dasig uses the One Button SMS, a mobile application that can be downloaded for free online, and widely used in android devices as medium for reporting. 

It is user-friendly and  can send 10 messages at any given time and can be used even offline.

The application is designed to swiftly send an SOS or emergency message to a police station when a crime occurs and the nearest police personnel will immediately be dispatched to respond. 

Police have limited the system for the meantime while under pilot-testing to identified clienteles such as banking and financial institutions, convenience stores and gasoline stations, and other businesses operating on 24-hour basis, which are usual targets of robbers.

De Chavez said they are conducting mapping of all vital installations, financial institutions, and other establishments for  pre-registration.

Nocppo has devised a mechanism to avoid prank reporting and ensure safety of their personnel through registration of the numbers being used by the business establishments and imposing security features in the text message template. 

Numbers asking for police response which will not appear as registered number will not be entertained. They will be using the regular way of reporting incidents by calling or texting the hotline numbers of the concerned station.

De Chavez said they are expecting to reduce the response time from five minutes based on their police operational procedures to at least three minutes because the possibility of arresting the suspects in the crime is higher if the response time is faster.

Police Lt. Col. Salvador Trono Jr., Talisay police chief, gave the overview of the project and showed how the crime reporting system works through a simulation exercise.

The project will be pilot-tested in all 12 component city police stations in the province after the launching and an assessment will be conducted by Project Dasig Technical Working Group after 15 days to evaluate the project's effectiveness and address identified gaps and glitches.

De Chavez said that he is also eyeing to replicate the system in all municipal police stations in the province.

Aside from shortened response time, the provincial police force want to gain the trust and confidence of the public and introduce the use of technology that could make their job easier.

The project is anchored on the program of Police Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), who encourages the use of technology as part of the smart policing strategies of the organization.