MANILA, Philippines – Even the Philippine National Police (PNP) wants to go digital.

Presenting the 2013 PNP Midyear Report on Wednesday, July 17, PNP chief Alan Purisima noted an increase in the number of arrested criminals, but said the agency is exploring more options to allow citizens to report crimes.

Purisima said they are looking at either a special website, a hotline, or most likely a Twitter account to make it easier for citizens to report incidents.

He cited a December 2012 survey, which showed that more than 70 percent of crimes are not reported to the police mainly because doing so was inconvenient for victims or concerned citizens. Purisima said he would like to see that change.

“We would like to know what is the true crime situation because it will tell us how to deploy our personnel,” he said at the press conference at Camp Crame.

“If there are more reported street crimes somewhere, we will deploy more men to those areas. If our deployment is wrong, then crime will continue to happen. We need reports of our countrymen,” he said.

Purisima said there are 5 areas in Metro Manila which they have determined to be needing more police focus, largely because they are often crowded. These are:

• Cubao, specifically around Aurora Blvd and EDSA;
• Caloocan specifically Monumento;
• Baclaran;
• the University Belt;
• Pasay City, specifically the area between EDSA and Taft Avenue.

“We’ve asked that there be extra focus there so our people can feel the presence of our police,” he said. – Rappler.com