The anti-criminality campaign of the police force in Dumaguete City will receive a big boost with the arrival of 20 fresh recruits who will be assigned in the city for a 6-month field training program.

The recruits, many of them graduates of B.S. Criminology of the Negros Oriental State University, hold the rank of Police Officer 1 and will be fielded in key areas of the city as part of the training, Provincial Police Director, S/Supt Melvin Ramon Buenafe, said.

A turnover ceremony was held yesterday at the Dumaguete police station with NORSU president Dr. Henry Sojor and City Administrator Dominador Dumalag Jr. among the invited speakers.

City police chief Supt. Leopoldo Cabanag welcomed the police recruits, saying their arrival was timely since the police needs more men to fight criminality, especially with the rising incidents of snatching and petty thievery in the city.

Cabanag said most of the city's policemen are now concentrated in the Dumaguete port due to an ongoing labor dispute there that has already affected not just port users, but the public in general.

He also attributed the deployment of police trainees to Buenafe who had requested the PNP regional office in Cebu to hold the field training program for the recruits in Dumaguete.

The trainees will be fielded in pairs to crime-prone areas in the city and guided by a regular policeman.

Buenafe, meanwhile, said he is optimistic that local police can conduct the training program effectively and that, the number of recruits would be increased later.

"We will show to them (PNP hierarchy in Cebu) that we will conduct this program here the way they want it accomplished," Buenafe said.

Field training officers from Dumaguete, headed by Sr. Insp. Rodolfo Serrano as supervisor and others who have attended seminars in Cebu, will handle the program, Buenafe said.

Cabanag said the city police is equipped with firearms, handheld radios, motorcycles and other needs of the police trainees so that they will be amply trained in various police work, as well as the police beat system and investigation.*JG

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