Western Mindanao State University

College of Criminal Justice Education

Normal Rd. Baliwasan Zamboanga City

“PERFORMANCE OF TWO POLICE STATIONS ON RECORDED CASES

OF INDEX AND NON-INDEX CRIMES IN ZAMBOANGA CITY: AN

ASSESSMENT

Researchers:

Bitun, Ianne Gyle

Saldaña, Mark Jonah M.

Selen, Eric John P.

Serrano, Leo Gandy P.

Tabañera, Michael S.
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Police officers play a vital role in ensuring public safety and internal security

in our country. As a mandate of every Police officers, they are to enforce the law

stated in the constitution, they are also tasked to ensure that an individual can leave

and arrive at their destination without being molested, assaulted, abused, robbed or

killed every single day.

Police officers are the key characters in the community in terms of upholding

justice to the victims of the crimes may it be form of against a person, properties or

from illegal activities such as usage of drugs and other substances, or illegal

possession of firearms and explosives. They are first to be sought when a crime

transpired in the community and every individual who are victims of such illegal

actions tend to give their trust to the officers in performing and providing them the

justice they seek.

Crimes in the Philippines come in different forms, they are categorized into

index and non- index crimes. Index crimes are known also as “8 focus crimes” which

are murder, homicide, physical Injury, rape, robbery, theft, carnapping, and Arson.

Non-index crimes on the other hand are violations of special laws such as reckless

imprudence, violations against women and children, illegal possession of drugs and

fire arms, illegal logging, lasciviousness and direct assault.

Zamboanga City is categorized as one of the biggest and most populated cities in the

Philippines, it is also considered as third largest city by land area in the country. Due
to the fact that it is one of the most populated and largest area, it can be note that the

level of its crime is also high compared to other cities. The city according to Numbeo

–the world’s largest database site about cities and countries nationwide, that the level

of crime in the city is over 62.08 percent with the crimes increasing in the past 3

years. Considering that Zamboanga city is a highly urbanized place, the barangays in

urban areas in the city were recorded with highest crimes such as robberies, murder,

theft, prostitution, and other illegal activities under non-index crime due to the dense

population of the city.

Crimes are rampant in Zamboanga City today, whether it’s from petty crimes such as

pickpocketing or from grave offenses such as murder. There will always be

individuals who choose to be involved in illegal activities due mostly to their social

status and unequal opportunity. Thus, recognizing that there is a problem in the status

of security of the citizens in the city, the researchers selected two police stations in the

urban area of Zamboanga City under the Zamboanga City Police office to conduct an

evaluation to measure the capability and performance of the selected stations in

investigating index and non-index crimes. It is also important to evaluate the

competence of the investigators in terms of their experience and trainings in order for

us to also determine the effects of a Police Officer’s knowledge and skills in

investigation to the overall effectiveness of the department. In order to maintain

internal security and public safety in our nation, police officers are essential. Every

police officer is required to uphold the law as set down in the constitution, but they

are also responsible with making sure that people can go to and from their

destinations without encountering molestation, assault, abuse, robbery, or murder on a

daily basis.
 Police officers are key figures in the community when it comes to ensuring

justice for victims of crimes committed against people, property, or illegal activities

such as the use of drugs and other substances, or the illegal possession of firearms and

explosives. They are the first to be sought when a crime occurs in the community, and

all victims of such illegal actions tend to put their trust in the officers to perf Crimes

in the Philippines are classified into two types: index crimes and non-index crimes.

Index crimes are also known as "8 focus crimes" because they include murder,

homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, kidnapping, and arson. Non-index

offenses, on the other hand, are violations of special laws such as reckless

imprudence, violence against women and children, illegal possession of drugs and

firearms, illegal logging, lasciviousness, and direct assault or and provide them with

the justice they seek.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aims to determine the Police performance on combating crime in

(2) selected Police Stations in Zamboanga City From 2019-2022. It specifically seeks

to attain the following specific objectives:

1. What is the index and non-index crime records of two selected Police Stations

in Zamboanga City from 2019-2022 in terms of :

A. Number of pending cases

B. Number of closed cases

2. What is the percentage rate of two selected Police stations in terms of:

a. Pending crimes

b. Closed crimes
 3. What is the qualification/training of the investigators of two selected Police

stations.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To identify crimes under index and non-index crimes among 2 Police Stations

in Zamboanga City

2. To analyze the performance of police work in terms of percentage rate of

index and non- index crimes as recorded in 2 selected Police stations.

3. To describe the qualifications and training background of the investigators of

2 selected police stations.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

As the problem of Zamboanga City to the different crimes continue to exist, it is very

crucial that Police stations’ performance in conducting Investigations are closely

monitored to ensure that the crimes being reported are acted upon immediately and

accordingly.

This study is important as it aims to observe the performance of Police

Stations A and B in terms of their progress in solving Index and Non-Index Crimes in

their respective jurisdictions. Station A has 7 barangays under its umbrella whereas

station B has 6 barangays but the gap in terms of population by the Station B’s Area

of Responsibility make the comparison more reasonable considering also that parts of

Station B’s jurisdictions are highly urbanized areas compared to station A’s.
 The study also sought to translate the data that are gathered and give

interpretation to whether Police stations are performing well or not. In that way, We,

the researchers and concerned citizens of Zamboanga City can make an unbiased

claim to the issue of peace and order in the area.

This study can also be considered as a reference to the involve Police Stations

under the Zamboanga City Police Office and other concerned offices to monitor the

status of performance in their investigations regarding the Index and Non-index

crimes.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This section of the study will discuss subject matter, time and place, research

subjects/ respondents, research design, research environment, and research

instrument.

Subject matter; This study will evolve in gathering data through objective approach,

it means that all statistics gathered are from recorded data from the systems of

different Police stations under Zamboanga City Police Office, the study will focus

mainly in verifying, understanding and providing comparative data analysis to the two

Police stations – Police stations A and B both located in a highly urbanized area in

Zamboanga city in order for the researchers to give an unbiased report to the progress

of the investigation of Index and non-Index crimes in the City.

Time and place; The study started on 2022 and will take place on two police stations

under the Zamboanga City Police office, Station 5 and Station 6.

Research subject/respondent; This study will be based on Crime Statistics of the two

respective Police Stations from January to December of the year 2019, 2020, 2021,
2022 respectively. Station 5 has 7 barangays under its jurisdiction namely – Divisoria,

Lumayang, Lunzuran, Lumbangan, Putik, Boalan and Zambowood. Station 6 on the

other hand has 6 barangays namely – Tetuan, Kasanyangan, Tugbungan, Talon-Talon,

Mampang, and Arena Blanco.

Research design; The researchers in this study will focus mainly in using Quantitative

approach in order for them to gather data which are objective, systematic data from

records of Police Station A and Police Station B are the reference to produce a non-

biased result and huge amount of percent in terms of credibility of the research study.

Research Instrument; Crime statistics data of the Philippine National Police are sort

into: 1. Nature of the crime – against person, against property, non-index crimes, and

special laws 2. Total crimes committed on a specific timeframe 3. Total crimes

cleared, and total crimes solved. Base on this data we will group and total the number

of crimes which was committed under Index and Non-Index crimes respectively and

sort the “crimes cleared” and “crimes solved” in order for us (researchers) to identify

the progress of cases which are handled by Police stations A and B.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

RELATED LITERATURE

International Literature

“Measuring the Performance of the Police”. Police performance is a crucial

factor in determining how successfully they carry out their duties as law enforcers. “In

order to monitor how well an organization is carrying out its mandate, they began

measuring police performance in the middle of the nineteenth century”. The efficacy

of a police organization's fulfillment of its duties can be assessed by the way it

approaches a given issue in terms of crime prevention, crimes solved, police visibility,

and community relations. Police response times, crime rates, clearance rates, and

other direct indicators of performance were recently substituted for each other in the

late 1930s, during the "Professionalization" era. The crime rate in the Philippines

increased steadily during a nine-year period, rising from 98.0 percent of incidents in

the year 2001 to 267.5 percent in the year 2010., there were 169.9 index crimes and

97.6 non-index crimes out of the total crimes reported during those times based on the
record of the National Statistical Coordination Board in 2013 (Maguire and Uchida,

2000).

Local Literature

“The numerous crimes that take place daily throughout our nation are one of

our society's challenges.” while they can happen anywhere and at any time, they

sometimes do so at particular times. In their research, the authors concentrated on

identifying crime-related occurrences in time and geography in terms of index and

non-index crimes. They conclude that asserting a crime does not favor any certain

location or opening. Their research intends to categorize crimes into index and non-

index crimes in order to identify crime-related episodes. The top five criminal

incidences in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, according to them, were VAWC RA

9262, Accidents involving vehicles, bodily harm, threats or coercion, and deliberate

mischief. A few barangays showed a high propensity to experience crime-related

incidents over a certain period of time. They conducted an inquiry using ocular

examination and some interviews as a consequence of their research. In order to

reduce or at the very least prevent the occurrence of crime-related incidents in their

jurisdiction, their study served as a guide for the police force (Taclay,2022).

“Human Behavior seems to be influenced by the phases of the moon, despite

government efforts to prevent and suppress them, crimes are still committed.” Some

of the authors have argued that the moons of the solar system influence the body and

the earth. The term insanity comes from the idea that the lunae cycles influencce

human behavior, and it is a common phenomenon that a full moon can increase

criminal activity. and the crime committed in the two city of Dipolog and Dapitan.

The most common index crime were theft, assault and threats. Non-index felonies
included malicious mischief and violation of RA 7610 and RA 9262. In their study

the results were showed that most index crime occurred in the first quarter and new

moon period. Non-index crime, on the other hand, occurred in each phase of the

moon. Rates of Indexed and Non-indexed crime can be affected by the moon phases.

The Philippine National Police may take additional precautions to prevent criminals

from committing theft, assault and intimidation. The presence of Police is increased

during the first quarter and New Moon period to deter crime from occurring and to

implement intensive community policing programs to protect communites from

unwanted crimes (Daymiel and Pellaga, 2021).

RELATED STUDIES

International Studies

“Police Officers are expected to be able to handle all situations with a calm

and collective demeanor even when their life is in danger”. As expected for being in a

law enforcer, they should have a maximum tolerance and respect to a person’s life. To

minimize and to completely reduce the crime rate, the performance of the police

officer will stand as a tool and contribution to reduce the increasing crime rate in the

community. Another essential aspect of police performance is community relations, A

well-established relationship between the police and the community that will aid to

increase cooperation and trust between the two that can lead to a secured and safer

community and better crime solving rate. While police misconduct is another serious

issue that can put harm to the police department and to the community. Crime rates of

a certain community are affected as to how the police offices react to the commotions

and problems in the community, if the individuals who plan to do something illegal

knows that police officers lack work ethic and manpower, it affects the overall morale
of the criminals. In order to assess the performance of police, we need to consider the

crime statistics such as the number of reported crimes solved and the clearance rate

are frequently analyzed in order to access how well police department perform at

solving crimes. In order to determine the police performance, it is also important to

consider like the response of police when it times of call for assistance, feedback of

the public towards the police and the degree of the community involvement (Gutshall,

Hampton, Sebatan, Stein and Broxtermann, 2017).

“The effectiveness and efficiency of police work is doing the right thing to

assist the citizens who are their customers at all time”. This is because the main

objective of police work is to serve and protect the community by inscribing their

needs and concerns and to provide the appropriate assistance. To accomplish this,

police officers need to have a thorough understanding of the community they serve,

including it demographic, culture, and particular problems. It also includes the

treatment of the overall members of the community with fairness and respect and

providing immediate service to construct a positive relationship with the community.

Plus, it requires effective training, proper supervision and oversight, and a culture that

prioritizes the integrity, accountability, and transparency in order to ensure that the

police are doing the best job possible in serving and protecting the community

(Tembur,2017).

“Police officers frequently work irregular and extended shifts, including night

shifts that conflict with the endogenous circadian (24-hour) rhythm in sleep

propensity and waking alertness.” This is because of nature of their job, they are

responsible for maintaining the secure and safety as well as enforcing laws, which

requires them to be convenient at all time.

Furthermore, police officers may require to work extended shifts, such as 12-hours

shifts, to make sure that there are sufficient range or there are available personnel at

the time of crime hours. This is challenging to the officers both physically and

mentally but there is no other way around because that is requisite to produce a safe

community. Law enforcers perform their mandated role in the society by ensuring that

the community and its people are safe from criminals and other dangerous

individuals, it is very critical aspect in maintaining the peace and order of every urban

and rural areas in the country (Wagonner, Grant,Van Dongen, Belenky, and

Vila,2012).

“The weather condition such as Typhoons and Temperature had an impact on

interpersonal, property and non-index crime rate”. The Primary focus of this study is

to determine whether typhoons wind speed and precipitation affect index, non-index,

and total crime. A secondary study examines how temperature affects the same crime

variable. The researcher later found out that wind speed, precipitation and temperature

have had a significant impact on crime rates both now and in the past. Developing

countries are particularly vulnerable to the shocks of natural disasters and it is

important to recognize the full range of consequences that can occur in the aftermath

of disasters. If these findings are taken seriously by policymakers, they could improve

the safety of millions of people after the next environmental shock ravages their

countries (Wetherly,2014).

Local Studies

“Consciousness inside the Police is the most crucial aspect in mitigating the

impact of the rising crime rate claims”. Due to the fact that police officers are unable

to forecast where and when specific crimes will occur. In line with that the key
objective of the research is to come about a predicting model in investigating crime

records in the province of Laguna. She later found out that Decision tree algorithm are

the best machine learning algorithm in classifying crime occurrence and based on the

news article by William Balasa in hagupit.ph, PNP or the Philippine National Police

said that Laguna is one of the places in the country that has a very high crime rate.The

month of August saw the highest number of crime incidents, with 857 cases reported,

while the month of January saw the lowest number, 184. Another interesting pattern

revealed that the months of June to August saw the highest number of crimes

reported, while the months of December to February saw the lowest number of cases.

Dangerous drugs, violence against women and child abuse are the three non-index

offenses that occur most frequently and have nearly identical density rates. The

dangerous drug-related crimes that occurred from March to June, August, October,

and November are the very first contender to come in terms of the expected crime

occurrence per month. It was expected that there would be a high likelihood of child

abuses and violence against women occurring from December to February. Criminal

offenses involving land transportation were expected to happen in the months of July

and September, whereas comprehensive infractions involving firearms and

ammunition were anticipated to happen in the month of November, albeit with a very

low possibility. Last but not least, non-index criminal incidents often take place or

occurred between the hours of 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. In particular, incidents of

violence against women happen between 11:00 AM and 3:30 PM, incidents of child

abuse happen between 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM, problems with illegal gambling appear

between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM, crimes involving land transportation occur between

1:00 PM and 4:00 PM, and serious crimes involving firearms and ammunition occur
between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. And last but not the least, dangerous drugs crime

incidents mainly reported between 12:00 PM and 4:20 PM (Villarica,2020).

Index crimes are those committed against a person, such as “murder,

homicide, physical harm, and rape”, as well as those committed against property, such

as “robbery, theft, kidnapping, and cattle rustling.” Non-index crimes are

transgressions of particular laws, such as the use of harmful medicines among others.

The violation of municipal or city ordinances is one of the other non-index offenses.

They also make a statement regarding several crime-theory hypotheses that attempt to

explain the factors that lead people to a life of crime. Which are the Rational Choice

theories that describe how criminals often choose their victims depending on their

level of vulnerability, such as the absence of law enforcement, senior persons, and

unsecured buildings (Caba-Ong, Cuevas, Alvarico, Enguito, 2015). “That working

and going to school significantly decreased the probability of committing criminal

acts.” This is due to that education and being employed contribute to an individual a

different criminal behavior, and will develop a skill and the necessary assistance to

evade from unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice system. additionally,

going to school and being employed also provide a sense of accomplishment and self-

worth plus it will increase an individual’s financial stability. Also, the studies focused

on identifying the link between crime and labor market condition in the Philippines

from 1970 to the late 2008 using two strategies. While regional-level panel data from

1990 to 2008 shows that wage rate, the rate of labor participation and per head income

have a remarkable effect on crime rate in all categories of crime, national level time-

series data from 1970 to 2008 showed that wage rate and per head income

significantly affect the crime rates over the sample period (Patalinghug, 2011 cited

from Witte and Tauchen, 1994).

 “Who found out that active use of illegal drugs tends to increase the frequency

of criminal activity.” It is a social problem that damaged the growth of the nation,

given by the current situation, the use of drugs can lead to criminal behavior that can

later be a burden to their financial burden of addiction. If some of an individual who

uses drugs, they will go through a certain length in order to acquire the fund to

purchase the drugs. It was revealed in the study that the PDB Project Double Barrel in

the Philippines are effective but unfortunately, only in the province because there is a

slight decrease in the number of crime incidents. Plus, most of the drug surrenderers

which belong to the marginalized sector are the construction worker, jobless and

informal worker. The project is good at the same time it cost a lot while some are

against to the law that was implemented by the previous President Duterte (Dio,

Apostol, and Madrazo ,2019 cited from Nordstrom and Dackis ,2011).

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

 Chapter III

Research Methodology

RESEARCH DESIGN

The researchers in this study will focus mainly in using Quantitative approach and

will apply a Correlational research design. The purpose of this study is to determine

the performance in terms of crime ratio of the Police Station in solving Index and

Non-Index Crime. To minimized and reduced crimes in the future.

RESEARCH LOCALE

This study will be conducted within Zamboanga City particularly in the two selected

Police Station under the Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO). Police Station A

located at Barangay Divisoria near Maria Clara Lobregat High School, which about

5.1 km away from the city proper and Police Station B located at Barangay Tetuan.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE STUDY

This study will cover all the data gathered of all recorded cases of Index and non-

index crimes through secondary data in the two selected Police station under

Zamboanga City Police Office

VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE

The researcher will seek permission through a written letter addressed to the Police

station A which is located at barangay Divisoria, Zamboanga City and Police Station

B, located at Barangay Tetuan Zamboanga City. After obtaining permission, the

researcher will personally conduct an interview with the Police investigators

regarding their demographic profile, after that the researchers will also request for a

data from the station regarding their system’s data of Index and non-index crimes

STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF DATA