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

I. 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.orm and provide them with the justice they seek.
Objectives:

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.

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.

I. 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.

IV. 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.