Rogue cops

 

The campaign of the government against rogue cops is an on-off undertaking depending on who sits at the helm of the Philippine National Police (PNP) or the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Following the arrest of a gun-toting policeman who has gone AWOL (absent without leave) after being implicated in a kidnapping, the issue of scalawags in uniforms has once again grabbed the spotlight.

The question is: But for how long? With a new appointee at the DILG vowing to go all-out against rogue cops, we hope all other rogue cops are made to account for their misdeeds.

The problem, it seems, lies with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) being too slow in meting out disciplinary actions on erring cops, especially those who deserve to get the boot because of the gravity of their offenses.

For a time, with the now retired Raul Bacalzo as chief of the PNP, the Napolcom cracked the whip hard on erring cops resulting to the dismissal of many.

What Bacalzo did was simple enough: To set a time frame with which the Napolcom was to resolve the cases filed against policemen. It worked with the misfits being weeded out and innocent being exonerated.

Truly, an organization is only as good as its leader.

Image by rappler.com