By Chito Chavez Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte lauded the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) for being named the most trusted police district in Metro Manila. As chairperson of the Quezon City Anti-Drug Abuse Advisory Council (QCADAAC), Belmonte said the city government is “proud” of the QCPD as the people themselves have expressed their trust and confidence to the city police force. Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte (Mark Balmores) “People in Quezon City now sleep better at night knowing they have policemen and public protectors that they can trust,” Belmonte said in a statement. “Congratulations to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) under the able leadership of Gen. Guillermo Eleazar for having ranked no. 1 as Most Trusted Police District in a survey commissioned by the National Police Commission (Napolcom),” she added. With the accolade, Belmonte said Quezon City residents now feel safer and protected knowing that they have a strong and professional police force that can be relied on. Belmonte admitted that the image of the police in general has been badly sullied by the involvement of police scalawags in drug trade but “Eleazar and his men in uniform succeeded in changing the image of the QCPD through their sincere efforts.” “When we intensified relations between QCADAAC and QCPD to better fulfill our anti-drug campaign. We agreed that the first order of the day was to win back the people’s trust in our law enforcement agency, which had been besmirched by numerous reports of cops complicit in the drug trade,” Belmonte noted. Through QCADAAC, Belmonte had closely worked with the QCPD in carrying out the city government’s anti-drug drive and its community-based drug rehabilitation and treatment program. About 16,000 drug dependents have so far surrendered to the city government and QCPD, about 1,200 of whom have graduated from the rehabilitation program while 300 are still at treatment centers. In the Napolcom survey conducted on Oct. 30, Nov. 2 to 3 and Nov. 6 to 10 last year, QCPD placed first among the five police districts in terms of respect and trust from the public with a rating of 73.6 percent, higher than its 30 percent rating in 2016. The QCPD also obtained the highest rating in terms of quality of police response and accessibility with a rating of 77. 2 percent. It also bested other police districts when it comes to moral and ethics with a rating of 75.3 percent. As for level of safety, the public viewed the QCPD favorably with 73.5 percent and crime reporting with 65.3 percent. It also got the highest rating in terms of public support with 90 percent. Eleazar had said QCPD’s success could be attributed to the active support of the local government and the community.