Cops launch app for human rights
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has released an application that is meant to empower the community to watch out for errant cops who do not abide by their own operational guidelines.
"The application aims to empower the policemen to know (and) to strictly adhere to police operational procedures especially in policing, in order to avoid discrepancies during operations. At the same time it also empowers the community on their rights. We made this with the hope to bridge the gap between the community and the police," said Chief Superintendent Dennis Siervo of the PNP's Human Rights Affairs Office.
Siervo led the press conference on the functionalities of the "Know Your Rights" application, which contains Human Rights Advisories, Miranda Warning, Rights of Persons arrested, detained or under custodial investigation.
One of the helpful tabs of the application was the Human Rights Advisories, which has several police procedures such as implementing a warrant, conducting checkpoints, and up to prepared lines for Tokhangers.
The application offers versions in 10 different dialects and included text and translation in four different languages corresponding to the top four most number of tourists in the country: Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
Siervo said that the app is one of the many innovations that are yet to come in order for the PNP to keep up with the changing times.
"The PNP definitely has plans to keep up with the changing times, although mayroon ng application for Human Rights we still have to fine tune it," Siervo said.
He added that the PNP has saved a lot in having the application as they have only spent P150,000 in the development and logistical dissemination of the application, as compared to the booklet which they spent half a million for 90,000 copies.
According to Siervo, all policemen are mandated to download the application and adhere to its functions.
He said appropriate sanctions will be faced once policemen are found not complying with the following the regulations of the said application.
However, the administrative charges will be determined upon due process.
He said that the regional counterpart of the human rights office will be the one to oversee the compliance report on each cop.
Ever since the PNP led the administration's crackdown against illegal narcotics, they have received heavy backlashes for glaring human rights' errors.
Siervo said one of the gauges to determine if the app would be helpful to the organization is to see the impact on the conduct of operations.
"Ever since the drug war started, we can see that there has been a decrease in suspects killed in operations. We can have that as a gauge as well on the effectivity of the application to our policemen and the community," he said. —