Traffic incidents cause

May crimes increase 

TAGBILARAN CITY. June 18 (PIA)--May had 27 more crimes compared to April, but Camp Dagohoy showed proof that the increase in fact is not what it implies. 

At the recent provincial Peace and order Council Meeting in time for the Health Education Agriculture Tourism and Information Technology Caravan in Inabanga town, authorities from the Bohol Police Provincial Headquarters in Camp Dagohoy showed that minus the traffic related incidents (TRI) in the crime blotters, crime incidents, in fact, would be lower. 

In a Powerpoint presentation, Police Senior Superintendent Dennis Agustin showed that overall, the crime of physical injuries in May topped April's 173 cases with 227, this month. 

Moreover, the Bohol police chief who used to be a key Metro Manila Station Chief, of the 227 physical injury cases in May, 144 of them are vehicular accidents. 

In the last two months (April and May), total crime volume in Bohol reached 1607, but without the traffic related incidents in it, police would be looking at 1249 cases. This, Colonel Agustin pointed out, is 22% decrease. 

To further highlight the disparity if traffic related incidents were not counted among cases, Col Agustin cited physical injuries and homicide cases in Bohol. 

Total physical injury cases in Bohol in April and may reached 400, but 245 cases of them involved vehicular accidents. This, Col Agustin noted is 61%.

For malicious mischief, Camp Dagohoy noted 145 cases, which should have been only 43 cases, if traffic related incidents were counted out of it. The TRI in this case is 70%. 

Moreover, on homicide, or the killing of one person by another can either be intentional, which is murder, or unintentional, which is manslaughter, Col Agustin points out: "there were 20 cases, 10 cases of these have been traffic related, that if this were curbed, Bohol would have 50% decrease in crimes listed in blotters.

This shows that if proper attention is focused on keeping traffic violations at the minimum, total crime volume could go down and lives could be spared, a PPOC member said. 

This data stunned members of the PPOC as this was the first time that the figures revealed dramatic impacts on the efforts to erase the misconception that Boholanos are troublesome owing to the high physical injury cases noted. (rac/PIA-7Bohol)