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Government steps up anti-crime efforts
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Posted on Apr 26 2002
The executive branch has offered to sit with crime-solving agents every week in May to tackle solutions pertaining to the Commonwealth’s disturbing crime rate, the Department of Public Safety disclosed yesterday.
DPS spokesperson Lt. Pete C. Muña said that Governor’s Office has made arrangements with some police investigators to discuss crime-solving, as part of the administration’s efforts to support Police Month, celebrated in May.
“He [the governor] would like to meet with them every Friday in the month of May to discuss about that. Maybe talk to the public about it. He wants to get involved in asking the public for assistance to solve these crimes,” said Muña.
The Office of the Governor and the DPS has set up meetings on May 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31, every 10am at the former’s conference room in Capitol Hill.
The weekly meeting with the governor is just one of the many highlights of Police Month. Other scheduled activities include the “Police Blue Mass” on May 13, 3pm at the St. Jude Parish, the “Police Candle Light Parade” on May 14, 7pm in Garapan and the “Police Week Memorial Ceremony” on May 15, 10am, at the DPS parking lot.
Crime prevention in the Northern Marianas has been strengthened recently by efforts initiated by the DPS to review some 28 unsolved homicide cases, as well as, the birth of an inter-agency task force designed to curb juvenile delinquency.
For its part, the Criminal Bureau of Investigation in January jump-started its very own Homicide Unit in a bid to revisit 28 unsolved homicide cases pending in the last 23 years.
The Homicide Unit, with aid of the media, started a widespread campaign to solicit new information about the cold cases by issuing weekly homicide bulletins detailing a synopsis of the unsolved murders.
Seven out of ten homicide cases recorded by the CIB in 1995 remain unsolved while three murder cases, each in 2001 and 1993, are still pending.
Victims of the violent crimes from 1978 to 2001 mostly died from blunt trauma, shooting, stabbing, strangulation, drowning, among others.
