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DPS chief: Anti-drug campaign reduced crime rate
Public Safety Commissioner Robert A. Guerrero attributes the reduction in the CNMI’s crime rate—as Gov. Ralph DLG Torres reported in his annual State of the Commonwealth Address last Friday—to law enforcement officers’ relentless anti-drug campaign.
Guerrero said a check with court cases would also show a reduction in the number of crimes in the Commonwealth.
“Officers are doing what they are doing supposed to do,” Guerrero said in an interview shortly after Gov. Ralph DLG Torres delivered his address at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.
Torres said has said the crime rate is down by 65.3 percent compared to the numbers from 2013.
In five years, Torres said, domestic violence decreased by over 78 percent and property crimes are down by 58 percent.
The governor also noted that communicating to the public of the dangers of drunk driving has reduced the rates of driving under the influence of alcohol by nearly 80 percent this year.
Proud of his officers’ accomplishment, Guerrero noted that with the amount of drugs down, it has significantly reduced the crime rate.
“[As I’ve said two years ago], our Drug Task Force is going to go after drug users, drug dealers, and that’s what the Task Force did,” he said. “We got them[drug dealers] eventually, and that’s the outcome of it. Bottom line is, the drug task force is doing what they’re supposed to do, that’s why [we have] that outcome today.”
