To boost expediency in case of police and emergency assistance, the Marikina City police have equipped its patrol cars with Global Positioning System tracking devices.

Chief Insp. Earl Castillo, head of the Marikina police Criminal Investigation Division, said the new tracking devices would be a big help to law enforcers in responding to the needs of the public.

“Through this GPS, we can easily detect where our mobile patrol cars are dispatched and we could detect unauthorized use of the vehicles,” he explained.

The use of tracking devices was conceptualized by the Philippine National Police Operations Division and recommended it to local government units to enhance service delivery to the public.

Chief Insp. Norman Florentino, head of the Marikina police operations division, said each GPS unit costs P30,000 and the accompanying digitalized map is priced at around P100,000.

It was gathered that the GPS devices have initially been installed into the patrol cars of five barangays: Malanday, Barangka, Nangka, Sto. Niño, and Concepcion Uno.